As a teacher, I was trained to believe that the younger generation was so fortunate to have born in independent India that guarantees them the fundamental rights to explore their full potential and excel in whatever field they choose, unhindered by the background of birth and the prejudices of caste, religion and gender, and that the governments come and go, as party of a democratic process.

I also believed that the independent institutions, such as the Judiciary, the Press, the Bureaucracy, and the Election Commission, are insulated against arbitrary actions by public authorities to guard the fundamental rights of citizens and safeguard constitutional democracy. This philosophy was reflected in the classroom teachings throughout my teaching career spanning over three decades.

Now, I find that philosophy has turned on its head. I write this piece with deep anguish and a sense of despondency. It is not a question of the BJP versus the Congress or Narendra Modi versus Rahul Gandhi or this government versus that government. It is, as I see it, a question of the very survival of democracy and freedom, and of India's future. When Atal Bihari Vajpayee died on August 16, 2018, I was asked by The Free Press Journal, where I wrote a column, to write an obituary. My article titled Bhisma Pitamaha of Indian Politics was published the next day, August 17. I paid tribute to him:

"Pandit Nehru, impressed by his oratorial skills and the force of argument, said that he would one day become the Prime Minister of India ... He was held in high esteem by political leaders cutting across party affiliations for providing an all-inclusive government. He never allowed his ideological moorings in the RSS to colour his judgment. He treated the opposition with respect. He often consulted the rival political leaders on the issues concerning the nation. At a time when the country is polarised on communal lines, and fear psychosis gripping the nation ... there is much to learn for the present political dispensation from him."

And when the UPA government headed by Manmohan Singh was replaced in 2014 by the NDA government headed by Narendra Modi, no one ever imagined that the democratic electoral process could turn out to be so devastating for the Indian State. Eleven years later, we are unable to breathe freely. Today, the very electoral democracy – the soul of the nation - is in real danger of being obliterated. The elections in India are no longer free and fair, and there lies the real threat to the idea of India.

Take, for instance, the just-concluded Bihar Assembly election. The result is shocking and unbelievable – the NDA secured a landslide victory, winning a staggering 202 seats out of 243. At the same time, the INDI bloc, Mahagathbandhan, suffers a shattering defeat, consigned to a paltry 35 seats. The outcome doesn't reflect the ground reality and the actual issues affecting the people. The scale of the debacle of Mahagathbandhan defies logic; it is unnatural and inexplicable, nothing short of a miracle.

Kanhaiya Kumar's Palayan Roko Yatra in April 2025, Rahul Gandhi's Voter Adhikar Yatra in August, followed by Tejaswi Yadav's Adhikar Yatra, and the Bhart Jodo Yatra earlier by Rahul Gandhi in 2022 have galvanised the people like never before across the length and breadth of Bihar. Issues like migration, unemployment, growing crime against women and weaker sections, collapse of the examination system and repeated paper leaks, rampant administrative corruption, high rate of poverty, with Bihar remaining one of the poorest states with the lowest per capita income, and inadequate public education and health systems, raised by the opposition, have resonated with the people on the ground.

And the INDIA bloc came out with a revolutionary path-breaking manifesto, after consulting all sections of the people, that could totally transform and change the face of Bihar, and Rahul Gandhi emerged as the champion of not only the downtrodden, but the most popular leader of Gen Z. The Mahagathbandhan joint rallies attracted huge crowds.

In contrast, the NDA's campaign was lacklustre. The Modi-Shah duo digressed from the real issues and tried to polarise the people, whipping up religious sentiments and stoking communal passion. Modi used cheap and abusive language against the opposition and its leaders, belittling the high office he is occupying, leaving those who listened to his speeches extremely embarrassed. The NDA didn't address a single press conference, nor did it hold any briefing on its manifesto, which was hurriedly released a few days before the election. Nitish Kuman did not share the stage with Narendra Modi and Amit Shah. Their rallies left empty chairs, with the hired people making several complaints.

And yet, the NDA securing a landslide victory and the Mahagathbandhan getting decimated, despite strong anti-incumbency against a 20-year rule, is beyond comprehension. It is an insult to injury. The familiar stereotype analysis by political pundits falls flat unless we absolutely rule out election rigging and Vote Chori (Vote Theft). To say the unprecedented voter turnout of more than 67% was to return the NDA to power is to ignore the ground reality.

The RJD, the main opposition party in Bihar, which secured the highest vote share, has ended up with just 25 seats, as against 75 in 2020, with the same vote share emerging as the single largest party. The Congress, with a marginally improved vote share of 10% secured just 6 seats, as against 19 last time. In contrast, the BJP, with a vote share of just 20% (19.5% in 2020), secured 89 seats- almost 90% strike rate - and the JDU, with only 19% vote share, secured 85 seats: both the BJP and the JDU contesting 101 seats each. All opinion polls have shown that 34-36% people wanted Tejaswi as CM, as against 22% preferring Nitish Kumar.

Reacting to the election result, Rahul Gandhi said, "This result in Bihar is truly surprising. We could not achieve victory in such an election that was not fair from the very beginning." At a press briefing on November 15, Congress General Secretary KC Venugopal said, "The result that has come from Bihar is unbelievable for all of us. A 90% strike rate for a political party is unprecedented in Indian history. We are collecting data and conducting a thorough analysis, and within one or two weeks, we will provide concrete proof. This entire electoral process is completely questionable. The Election Commission is totally one-sided; there is no transparency."

And doubling down on the vote chori allegation, the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee blamed the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar for the collapse of the Mahaghatbandhan: "128 seats out of 202 won by the NDA came purely from SIR-based voter deletions. We analysed the voter deletion data published by the EC and compared it with the victory margins in each constituency."

The main reasons for the debacle of Mahagathbandhan:

First, the hasty, ill-conceived and ill-motivated SIR exercise. In his article The need for a social audit for SIR, The Hindu, November 18, 2025, MG Devasahayam, retired IAS Officer, Coordinator, Citizens Commission on Elections, writes: "The revised electoral rolls have several flaws, including a sharp decline in the adult-elector ratio, disproportionate deletions of women and Muslim voters, and duplicate names and bogus entries. Disenfranchisement, as feared, has already taken place. The ECI's conduct throughout the Bihar SIR has raised troubling questions about its impartiality and institutional integrity. The current SIR is bereft of proper Rules, oversight, scrutiny or audit. The SIR has no checks and balances and is susceptible to external influences and interferences." The Bihar Assembly election provided ample proof of the systemic bias, beginning with the deletion of 68 lakh and the addition of 24 lakh electors during the shoddy SIR exercise.

Second, the vote chori right under the nose of CEC Gyanesh Kumar is despicable. He demonstrated a marked bias towards the ruling party and failed to ensure a free and fair election. While announcing the two-phase election schedule on October 6, he said the total number of voters was 7.42 crore, but after the polls, the number rose to 7.45 crore. Who were these additional 3 lakh voters added after the election process began? Were they all first-time voters? Thousands of BJP voters from BJP-ruled states, including the RSS ideologue Rakesh Sinha, a teacher at Delhi University, who had voted in other states such as Haryana and Delhi, have voted in Bihar. This is illegal and a clear case of vote chori.

The CEC is also guilty of failing to enforce the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) to ensure a level playing field. He took no action on the countless complaints. His acquiescence in multiple violations of the MCC, including communal propaganda, allowing the bribe of ?10,000 paid to women during the campaign period (meant to counter the impact of the Voter Adhikar Yatra), and the special trains to be run to ferry the BJP voters from other states. The former CEC, OP Rawat, says the CEC should not have allowed the transfer of money during the election campaign. And another former CEC, SY Quraishi, thinks that Gyanesh Kumar made a mockery of India - mazak bana diya hai poore desh ka – by his conduct. 

Third, the Supreme Court's failure to address the SIR exercise in Bihar. The court, which has been monitoring the legality of the exercise, has refused to address the core question of the legality - the Election Commission's powers to conduct an SIR and the existence of any Rules thereof - and has allowed the exercise to proceed unchecked. The court is unnecessarily dragging the case beyond reason, giving the CEC a long rope to manipulate the SIR exercise to benefit the NDA, as reflected in the result. Had it decided the matter on merit and disposed of it, all this unpleasant outcome of a unilateral and arbitrary exercise, resulting in anxiety, tension and fear, could have been averted. Similarly, the selection process for appointing Gyanesh Kumar as the CEC, which was challenged in the Supreme Court, is also pending.

The fear of the SIR 2.0 exercise has made people in some states commit suicide. The voter registration process is made cumbersome and complex, with the EC shifting its responsibility for ensuring that every adult becomes a voter onto the voters themselves, requiring people to fill out the form and submit it with documentary evidence. This is a deviation from the established, simple procedure of enumerators visiting door-to-door, collecting the required information, filling the forms on the spot, and updating voter lists. The SIR 2.0 exercise, to be completed within a month from November 4, with all its flaws, is being conducted in 12 states and union territories. It is an attempt to repeat "Bihar" nationwide. The people associated with the exercise, under the pressure of work, are committing suicide. The election officials are on the streets protesting against the exercise.

Finally, the Press – the fourth pillar of democracy - bidding for the ruling dispensation has failed to discharge its role of presenting facts before the people and contributing to informed public opinion, which is a sine qua non for checking abuse of power and protecting the citizens' rights. The media, owned by corporate moguls, particularly the electronic media, is sold out to the political establishment. It is completely captured and controlled by the regime. The media abdicated its responsibility towards the nation and has become an instrument of propaganda.

The phrase, 'Whither India?,' was coined by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru in a pamphlet, written after the failure of the Round Table Conferences, and published in The Bombay Chronicle in October 1933. It served as a manifesto for the nation's post-independence destiny:

"Right action cannot come out of nothing. Never in the long range of history has the world been in such a state of flux as it is today. Major events are recorded in the news columns of papers but little attempt is made to comprehend the essential nature of social, economic and political reality. Whose freedom are we particularly striving for, for nationalism covers many sins and includes many a conflicting element? India's immediate goal can only be considered in terms of the ending of exploitation of her people. Whither India? Surely to the great human goal of social and economic equality, to the end of all exploitation." 

The Bihar Assembly election is rigged. It is a daylight murder of democracy; authoritarianism is normalised and vote theft institutionalised. Lakhs of people have taken to the streets in Patna to protest against the Election Commission, the first of its kind in India. The Congress - the principal opposition party - that collected 50 million signatures, as part of a nationwide campaign against the vote theft, has announced a massive rally against the Vote Chori at the historical Ram Lila Maidan in Delhi in the first week of December, coinciding with the winter session of Parliament. Whither India?