Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and BJP president Amit Shah appear blind to the necessity of checks and balances in India's constitutional democracy. While governance and law-making are the prerogative of the people, as expressed through their elected representatives, the structure is maintained by the enduring institutions designed to be impervious to political currents.

The bureaucracy is an institution long subverted. It is evident in the struggle to control the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) between Prime Minister Narendra Modi (through favoured police service officer Rakesh Asthana) and CBI chief Alok Verma (appointed by Modi himself). To hide the PM's ineptitude, his gang rote chant the unsubstantiated mantra that the bureaucracy is riddled with Congress moles like Verma. The truth? Ever since AB Vajpayee came to power, the bureaucracy has favoured the BJP. No wonder the national security advisor, a long-time intelligence bureaucrat, now gives policy and political advice, and says India needs a strong government till 2030 for us to reach our destiny as a global superpower.