The national capital has been a site of unrelenting street protests by the united opposition and common citizens ever since the dubious internal workings of the Election Commission of India (ECI) were brought to light. The government is accusing the protesters of attempting to unleash anarchy through these protests. It is true that institutional authority has indeed been undermined. However, it is the people in power who are responsible for it and not the people on the streets.In fact, the new political reality makes these protests inevitable. Therefore, before arriving at any conclusions we must locate these protests in the proper political context.The rot runs deeperThe ECI revelations flagged a number of serious issues regarding the integrity of the electoral process. Interestingly, the press releases and actions of the ECI, in response, have not refuted those claims but just informed the public that those issues were being addressed. These actions have effectively disenfranchised crores of voters, put the result of multiple elections under a cloud of suspicion, destroyed the sanctity of the voter rolls and hurled our democracy into an unprecedented crisis of legitimacy.However, although the ECI might be in the eye of the storm right now, it must be emphasised that the current crisis is not restricted to it. The rot runs deeper. The reality is that the institutions which were supposed to safeguard our democracy have abjectly surrendered before the might of the executive. That is the primary reason for our current predicament.Also Read: A Centralised Batch System Challenged Bengal Voters Who Were Cleared by Judicial Officers, Records ShowThe Meenakshi Natarajan Rajya Sabha case – where the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) fielded its third candidate despite clearly lacking the numbers and managed to get him elected unopposed – is a perfect example of this surrender. This is not an isolated case; it is common knowledge that the government has weaponised institutions and processes to punish critical media outlets and individuals until either they sell out or comply.Unfortunately, even the judiciary has not intervened meaningfully. For instance, during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in West Bengal, more than 27 lakh voters were deleted from the electoral rolls. However, when the issue was raised before the Supreme Court, it stolidly remarked that those who had been excluded, ‘could vote in the next election’. An appeal tribunal restored 91% of the 82, 782 appellants who were unjustly excluded and robbed off their franchise; thereby, putting a question mark over the fairness election.A new realityIn such a context, when one accuses the opposition of unleashing anarchy, one must also acknowledge this new political reality which we collectively inhabit. The opposition does not face an ordinary democratic government, but a regime which uses the letter of the law to smother the spirit of the law. Indian democracy is now in uncharted territory as the institutional surrender before the executive has turned India into a ‘controlled democracy’ – where elections are held periodically but the institutional mechanisms required for checks and balances are non-existent.This is by far the most serious challenge posed to Indian democracy since independence because unlike the emergency; which was a publicly proclaimed measure imposed for a limited period of time, the current arrangement ‘normalises’ a system wherein the executive exercises unchecked power; the institutions are weaponised to target political opponents; the corporate media spins narratives to defend these excesses and the judiciary permissively watches on; at best, restricting its criticisms to unenforceable observations. Indian democracy has been hollowed out from within.A sacred dutyOur democracy was shaped in the crucible of the anti-colonial struggle. The colonial state employed divide-and-rule tactics to deny our claim of nationhood; therefore, ensuring the widest possible democratic participation within the polity was essential for constituting the nation itself. Moreover, for the oppressed sections, democratic participation was the only way of ensuring equal citizenship within a hierarchical social order.Also Read: The ECI Software Deleted 5.38 Lakh Bengal Voters With Auto-Generated Rejections Without Citing a ReasonTherefore, we were among a minority of nations which adopted the principle of universal adult franchise. At the time of independence, India was considered too poor and illiterate to succeed as a democracy but our founders reposed their trust in the people and the people repaid that trust by embracing the idea of democracy. That is why during the first general elections, the ECI worked on the principle of ensuring the widest possible inclusion. However, today it seems the principle has flipped. It is clear that the ruling regime wants democracy sans participation.The trust which sustained our democracy has been shattered. The ECI expose has revealed much more than mere difference of opinion within the body; it has provided incontrovertible evidence of democratic backsliding in India. The institutions have, thus far, failed to check this slide. Therefore, it is our sacred duty to intervene and take back control of our democracy through Satyagraha because, after all, our democracy was forged through protests. It was not a gift of judicial review.Anshul Trivedi is a member of the Indian National Congress, currently national co-in-charge of its student front, the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI).