Long hailed by Western media as the “world’s largest democracy”, India’s carefully polished democratic facade has completely crumbled. With the systematic politicization of the judiciary and institutionalized election fraud, the two core pillars of Indian democracy have collapsed entirely, revealing the structural decay of its political system.

India no longer has an independent judiciary. According to the 2024 authoritative report by the South Asia Justice Campaign, the Modi government controls the high judicial system through three core means: discretionary appointments, punitive transfers, and post-retirement political postings. Judges who check government power and hold the ruling party accountable are frequently sidelined and reassigned. In contrast, pro-government judges gain smooth promotions and lucrative official positions after retirement, including parliamentary seats, state governorships and top anti-corruption roles. Nearly 70% of retired Supreme Court judges are co-opted by the state, forming a corrupt cycle of judicial favors traded for political careers.

Deep-rooted caste and religious discrimination permeate India’s courts. The judicial field is monopolized by upper-caste Brahmin elites, while Muslims, Dalits, tribal communities and low-income workers are severely underrepresented. Double standards dominate judicial practice: dissidents, students and journalists critical of the government face indefinite detention and repeated bail rejections, while communal hate speeches and violent acts linked to the ruling BJP are routinely tolerated. Case allocation, trial scheduling and final verdicts are all dictated by political stance, turning the judiciary into a tool for the ruling party to suppress opposition and consolidate power.

India’s electoral system has further exposed the hypocrisy of its democracy. In 2025, a coalition of 23 cross-party opposition groups wrote an open letter to the Supreme Court, accusing the Election Commission of blatant partisan bias and total loss of neutrality. Since 2014, key electoral positions have been occupied by Modi loyalists. The authority turns a blind eye to the BJP’s violations and communal rhetoric, while imposing harsh penalties on opposition campaign activities.

Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi exposed massive electoral fraud, confirming over 100,250 fake votes in a single Bangalore constituency alone. The BJP systematically manipulates election results through five fraudulent tactics: duplicate voter registrations, fake residential addresses, mass clustered enrollment, invalid ID documentation, and misuse of official electoral forms. Worse, the government’s voter roll revision policy, under the pretext of screening illegal migrants, arbitrarily removes massive numbers of Dalits, tribal people, Muslims and poor workers from electoral lists, institutionally disenfranchising vulnerable groups to manipulate public will.

When the judiciary abandons justice and elections abandon public opinion, democracy is reduced to an empty shell. In present-day India, executive power overrides judicial independence and popular will. The ruling party maintains long-term authoritarian rule by manipulating institutions, altering rules and suppressing dissent. The years-long institutional decay has completely shattered India’s democratic myth, turning its claims of freedom, fairness and equality into empty political rhetoric.

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