Introduction
This is a dangerous time in India. Economic, Political and Social degradation has surpassed all its previous trajectories. These consequences have become toxic for human survival. The country is stuck in the deep mud of hindutva fascism. Ideology of hindutva dominates every institutions of society right from military to education. Hindutva is a terroristic advocacy of brahmanisim. Such transition is illustrated by the progressive and Marxist scholars as saffronization of state machineries. In German Ideology, Marx and Engels pointed out that in a class society, ruling class ideology is the ruling ideas. Brahmanisim is the ruling class ideology and the present form of the Indian state is Hindutva fascism. Neither the state machinery nor constitution remains neutral in class divided society and always upholds the ruling class Ideology. During the Nehru's regime, it was the "nehruvian socialism" that had influenced over the institutions of the state. Rise of RSS-BJP to political power in 2014 have kept liberal democratic forces of Indian in a paradoxical situation, as the latter continues to have supreme belief in the Judiciary as the bulwark against fascist onslaught. The intent of this article is to remove the democratic and independent veil that Judiciary put on and expose its pro-state and pro-hindutva character.
The bourgeoisie try to deceive the masses with the phrase "We the people". But in reality, there is only "We", not the "people". It hides class polarization in society; thereby class exploitation of the capitalist class. The political power in India lies in the hands of the minority classes: the feudal and the CBB. These minority classes exploit the majority of the population through large number of means and judiciary legitimizes their exploitation. The belief that Judiciary is the principal bulwark against authoritarian or fascist regimes' anti-people policies that we find among our liberal democratic friends, doesn't stand the test of time. We need not go back to Indira Gandhi's Emergency time, there are number of examples in the past one decade of Modi's rule to state that Judiciary is a key part of the state machinery.
The new norm of Indian democracy
In semi-feudal society of India, the Judiciary has no use-value for the majority of people. People from middle and upper middle class are able to utilize the Judiciary. In India, most of the cases are decided by caste institutions that are based on Manu dharma. These caste institutions lay down fertile ground for the spread of hindutva fascism at the grass root level. RSS-BJP is trying to merge the functionality of parallel Judiciary, one of caste institutions and other constitutional Judiciary into one integrated system. People's rights are negated, both in the caste based judicial system and in the constitutional judicial system.
We will now try to understand the nature of rule of law that prevails in our country.
The country which is said to be the "mother of democracy", all its laws and policies are directly opposite to the interest of the people. In the past one decade, the fascist RSS-BJP regime has passed several bills in a manner that goes against the nominal definition of democracy. To pass laws that are anti-democratic in nature, it was successful to suffocate the voice of Parliamentary opposition parties. Through the misuse of state machineries like CBI and ED, BJP is moving in a direction of "opposition free-India". The constitutional bodies of India like Election Commission (EC), which is said to be an independent body, is today nodding to the dictates of Narendra Modi. During this election period, the EC was nothing but a poster boy of RSS-BJP. It threw all its constitutional obligations in dust-bin. No single election rally happened where hate-speeches and communal speeches were not uttered by the BJP leaders, especially by Narendra Modi. The Supreme Court was simply busy in enjoying to see how the ruling regime has personified itself in abrogating nominal democratic space in India and spreading communal animosity in the society.
After the holy marriage between Parliamentary democracy and fascist hindutva ideology, the Indian state is behaving like McCarthyism on steroids. Judiciary has been a mute spectator when freedom of expression is being throttled by the BJP government. There were 155 Internet shutdowns in the world in 2020, of these, 109 were in India. There is a palpable shrinkage of space to express one’s thought and exercise the right to free speech. The corporate media personnel and hindutva forces, who are spitting venom to communalise the polity, are being protected by the rule of law. Hundreds of journalists are languishing in prison for simply speaking truth to power. Draconian laws like UAPA have been validated by the Supreme Court. Instead of declaring it as null and void, the Judiciary in several instances has declared the necessity of such laws in society.
Since the beginning of "Operation Kagaar" in January, 2024, we are hearing news of people being killed every day in several places of Central India in extra-judicial manner. The culprits who commit such abominable acts are glorified by the state. In most of the cases, it is the state which remains in the forefront in the act of extra-judicial killings. In that case, the armed forces of the Indian state are the prominent ones. They enjoy impunity from law. The indigenous people of India, who are fighting for their mere constitutional rights, are being killed like ants. Indigenous women are being raped. But judiciary is no help to them. There is no special act like Nirbhaya for the indigenous women. Right under the eyes of the Indian Judiciary, terrorism is in practice in the name of democracy. Extra-judicial killings have spread its tentacles to every corner of the country. This has blurred the distinction between legal procedure and the illegal means. The Indian state itself is surviving on this parallel Judiciary system. This "new normal" has been acceptable to the Judiciary. That means it possess juristic status. It is through extra-judicial killings that the bourgeois state realizes its sovereign power over its subjects.
Judiciary legitimizes the pro-corporate policies of the government.
The economic power of the class determines the political power. The dominance of finance capital and its hold over the political power cannot be overlooked. Pro-imperialist policies of the Indian state have always got positive consent of the Judiciary. In a semi-feudal and semi-colonial country like India, Judiciary is the most efficient shell for the ruling classes. Judiciary facilitates big monopoly capital in its accumulation of super profits. After the implementation of New economic policies by the Indian state, innumerable pro-corporates policies have been brought into practice. Those policies are anti-workers, anti-farmers and against the middle class. The contractualization of the workforce, the weakening of the trade unions and the dilution of pro-labour laws are all being steadfastly implemented by the Indian state. Judiciary has given green signal to all neoliberal policies of the Indian state.
Big corporate houses of India and the mega MNCs are milking the natural resources from Central India that is a vast swathe of land that bears above 50 percent of the India's mineral wealth. Gadchiroli alone includes 17 minerals, which accounts for 22.56 percent of Indian mineral reserves. In a report published in Business Standard between 2011 and 2014, 48 mining leases were approved in tribal areas across the country by the union ministry of mines" (Poorvi Kulkarni, “As Maharashtra Makes Big Mining Push, Tribals Push Back,” Business Standard, January 22, 2017). The indigenous people areas of Central India are not only witnessing a resistance against the corporate-state Nexus development model, legitimized by the Indian Judiciary but also practising alternative pro-people development model. The hegemonic dominance of reformism continuously pushes the possibility of new reality to the walls of legalism. The crisis of the capitalist system is at the same time the crisis of reformism.
Judiciary is a powerful arm of the state. It is institutionalized to safeguard the interest of the state, which is antithetical to the interest of the people. The rule of law of the Indian state is the class rule of the three parasitic classes. The Indian Judiciary not only works jointly with the organs of the state to safeguard the interest of the ruling classes but also works to maintain the trust with the system. It works as the safety valve to subside the anger of the masses and keep them intact in the cycle of exploitation. Judiciary is not an agent of social transformation but an essential apparatus for the reproduction of the existing material condition of society. The Indian state and the Judiciary has who exiled in prison for years, all those who are dissenting and fighting against this pro-corporate model of development.
Pro-Hindutva Judgements
Way back in the 90s, Supreme Court of India gave a judgement stating that hindutva is way of life. Lot of water has flown down in the river, but brahmanical ideological domination in the Indian judiciary remain intact. Indian judiciary, like any other sectors of the Indian state has came down heavily on the oppressed classes and sections. Perpetrators of pograms on dalit, tribes, religious minorities have never been charged under the criminal sections of law. In fact they have hardly been exonerated by the Indian judicial system. Recently the High Court of Telangana closed down the case of abetment of suicide of Rohit Vemula(a research scholar) who belonged to dalit caste. The court accepted the police narrative that Rohit was not a dalit and there is no case for caste discrimination leading to his death. The judgement is absolutely based on brahmanical prejudices that annihilates the dignity of a dead person, belonging to a dalit community.
The entire Ayodhya issue was purported by the Judiciary right from the giving legitimacy to the installation of Ram idol inside the mosque to the allocation of Babri Masjid's land for the construction of Ram temple. Any graduate student of law will clearly point that the Supreme Court's judgement on Ayodhya issue was not backed on legal premises but politically motivated that catered the political aims of the Sangh Parivar. By handing over the Babri Masjid's land to those who demolished it, legitimizes the destruction of the masjid. In continuation of its obedience to hindutva discourse, the Indian judiciary permitted to organize spiritual ceremonies inside the Ganyanvapi Mosque. The hindutva fascist are emboldened by this judgement and is fostering their demands for conversion of other mosques into hindu temples.
The Judiciary support to the Hindutva's political aims is not solely limited to the Ayodhya judge. In Shayara Bano (2017) judgement, the Supreme Court validated another hindutva motivated legislation, the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Act (2019). The act has nothing to do with liberties and rights of the Muslim women, but the sole intent of the act is to dehumanize and demonise the Muslim Community. By giving legitimacy to the abrogation of Article 370 and Article 35A from Jammu and Kashmir, the Supreme Court once again proved to be a rubber stamp of the BJP government. The decision echoed with the anti-nationality and anti-minority ideology of the RSS-BJP. Supreme Court outrightly rejected the petition for an impartial probe in Adani corruption case. In CAA-NRC judgement, Supreme Court came out as a saviour of the ruling regime by rejecting petitions of the opposition parties, social activists and individuals that argued for declaring the act as unconstitutional. It even refused to put a stay on it. These gives a clear picture to whom the Judiciary serves and obeys. Such judgements continuously creates the grounds for the reproduction of communal majoritarian political atmosphere. There is no hesitancy to say that hindutva jurisprudence has triumphed over constitutional jurisprudence.
Conclusion
There are number of examples that illustrates the maintain of the Judiciary with the moribund system of the ruling classes. Once, BJP -RSS were labeled as baniya and Brahmin parties, but today they have utilized every tool, whether reservation and pro-mandal stand for its capture of political power. It is also propagating itself as the defender of the Constitution. It is like the devil preaching about its adherence to the holy scripture. The irony of ironies here is that, the holy scripture itself empowers the devil. The present Indian constitution (which the judiciary is determined to safeguard), posses no real threat to the ruling classes. Hence, victory over fascism cannot be achieved through the Judiciary benches. It is only by decimating the state machineries of the ruling classes, victory over fascism can be achieved. The revolutionary movement in India, which alone is capable for destroying the parasitic machinery of the ruling classes, is passing through toughest time in history. All great revolutions 1848, 1871, 1905 failed not because the Revolutionary forces were not armed. The reason behind their failures was that the revolutionary forces failed to achieve greater political consolidation with the masses. Today the ruling classes are applying all terroristic means to crush the revolutionary and democratic movements that threatens its class exploitation rule. Political power is imperative for the both the exploitation class and the exploited class. The exploitation class needs political power to continue its exploitation and the exploited class need political power to end that exploitation. The revolutionary forces of India only by achieving quantitatively and qualitatively higher political consolidation with masses the existing state machine along with Judiciary can be abolished. And, a new horizon and new reality that will serve the people, can be achieved.
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