New Delhi: Why has India’s democracy weakened so rapidly? Retired journalist and author Prem Shankar Jha takes on this pertinent question in his new book, The Dismantling of India’s Democracy. The book was released by former Union minister Mani Shankar Aiyar, followed by a discussion with Jha and Delhi University sociology professor Nandini Sundar, moderated by academic and writer Apoorvanand at Jawahar Bhavan, Delhi on September 9.Aiyar, describing the book as a “penetrating exposure of saffron governance” and a “must read”, discussed the key ideas and arguments presented by Jha. To answer the original question, India’s democracy, from the beginning, fell short on three fundamental aspects: ‘economic security’, ‘the rule of law’ and ‘speedy affordable justice’. This breakdown of governance undermined the four pillars of democracy and paved the way for the increasingly fascist tendencies visible today, he said.Drawing on Jha’s arguments, Aiyar highlighted the book’s framing of fascism, rooted in political scientist A.F.K. Organski’s thesis. Jha defines fascism as emerging when economic development, political modernisation and social adjustment are out of pace with each other. The result, he writes, is extreme nationalism, demonisation of minorities, and as Aiyar adds, deification of leaders. These are starkly evident in India’s current political climate.Aiyar then describes a unique and critical argument presented by Jha in his book – the issue of funding. In 1969, the Indira Gandhi government made a pivotal decision to ban corporate funding of all political parties. This led to the use of transactional funding that caused our democracy to be so entrenched in corruption with little democratic accountability. In the largest and fastest-growing constituency in the world, funding is not only important, but necessary. As long as there is no transparent and honest system of funding, a democracy cannot be rebuilt.Continuing on, the panellists had an enlightening discussion about the book, including definitions of fascism and whether such a failure of democracy was inevitable. Sundar praised the book’s contribution in linking political economy to campaign financing, which, she remarked, has enabled the rise of “the particular kind of predatory state and clientelist democracy” of today. Aiyar argued that nothing is inevitable about losing our democracy, and the situation can be repaired by the coordinated actions by the opposition and “pure politics” at the polls, without any corruption caused by the lack of funding systems. Jha himself reflected on the inadequacy of transplanting the British democratic model onto India. Constituencies in Britain are a fraction of the size of India’s, meaning that our model has to adapt to new requirements, including transparent state funding systems.“If you do not have an honest financing system, you will not have an honest democracy,” Jha concluded, emphasising the urgency of political and economic reforms to protect the world’s largest democracy.