Modi’s Power to Sideline Challengers Is Only Growing

“The last time an Indian leader held so much power — in the 1970s, when the country slid into outright dictatorship under Indira Gandhi — it was the courts that proved the final speed bump, issuing decisions that aimed to claw back some fundamental constitutional rights,” the New York Times reports.

“Now, as the current prime minister, Narendra Modi, tightens his grip on India’s democratic pillars with elections approaching early next year, he faces little pushback from the country’s judiciary. Instead, analysts, diplomats and political opponents say, Mr. Modi’s party has leaned on the courts to protect its own and target its rivals as he pushes India’s layered and vociferous democracy closer toward a one-party state.”