The Paralysis in Governance of India
My air purifier is one month old. The filter is already black. The AQI hasn’t dropped below 350 in weeks. This isn’t weather. It’s governance failure.
If the bureaucracy, police, regulators, and enforcement apparatus are internally sabotaging the elected government, is this still democracy? Or has it become a permanent state that tolerates elections but ensures elected governments cannot actually govern?Groups frame political opposition as “activism” or “civil society,” making enforcement appear authoritarian. Powerful actors (farmers’ unions, corporations, NGOs) operate as parallel power centers that the state cannot or will not control.The government may lose power not because it was too authoritarian, but because it was too weak. It is being destroyed by its own anxiety about perception while actual problems (pollution, infrastructure, corporate capture) remains unsolved. The state has power but is too intimidated by activist framing and international criticism to use it. Look at the pattern:Guest Visits
Something curious happens whenever important foreign visitors come to India. NGOs and interest groups time agitations for winter (when protests are sustainable) before state visits. In February 2020. Delhi riots happened during a US president’s visit.
April 2025. Terror attack in Pahalgam kills 26 tourists. A foreign vice president is in the country.
November 2025. Red Fort blast days before a scheduled state visit.
December 2025. Another major state visit is happening. IndiGo deliberately disrupted operations during President Putin’s visit. Audacity is that the country’s largest airline creates nationwide chaos, with impunity and Government is helpless.
Each time India should look strong, something goes catastrophically wrong. The pattern of failure specifically during foreign visits makes this weakness internationally visible. The country being targeted specifically because of its geopolitical importance, is a statistics. It is not the explanation. If there are gaps in governance, these shall be exploited.
Controlled Sabotage from Inside:
This is happening as we see it.- Bureaucratic resistance: Civil servants who ideologically oppose the government slow-walking or undermining policy implementation
- Regulatory capture: Agencies like DGCA that should enforce rules are compromised, either through ideology, corruption, or both
- Intelligence failures: Repeated “coincidental” security lapses during state visits suggest either incompetence or deliberate blindness. No ATS and no intelligence from Faridabad, where a nuclear safe bunker was constructed inside a Madarsa.
- Police as mafia: The enforcement apparatus itself is compromised and predatory rather than protective. They do not act on private complaints. The enforce order selectively.
- Coordinated timing: The precision of these incidents (IndiGo during Putin, attacks during Vance/Trump) suggests inside information and coordination
The Airline Story
The December disruption tells you everything. A single airline controls over half the country’s flights. It has significant foreign ownership. During a major diplomatic event, it refuses to follow duty time regulations. The government responds with criticism. Regulators grant temporary relief. The chaos continues. Incompetent Minister gives speech in Parliament.
No enforcement. No consequences. Just public humiliation on the world stage.
If a monopolistic corporation can openly defy regulation during a state visit, what does that tell you about actual power? It is a deliberate demonstration of state impotence designed to accelerate the collapse.
Track Record of Eleven Years
The air makes you sick. AQI stays in the hazardous zone daily. Farmers burn crops with impunity. Construction workers burn wood openly. Nobody can enforce environmental law even as people struggle to breathe.
The Clean India mission is forgotten. Smart cities never materialized. Roads stay broken. Drainage overflows. Municipal governance collapsed before corruption long ago.
Festivals face threats near certain neighborhoods. Riots flare up sporadically. Only two states maintain basic order. Religious authorities in many areas operate as parallel power centres.
Opposition state governments openly defy the center. The Supreme Court had to force 12 states to cooperate in revisions of electoral rolls. Even basic election integrity needs judicial intervention now.
The exception list is short. New trains, airports, expressways, digital infrastructure. All impressive. Notice what they have in common? They’re construction projects. The government has become a construction company with a flag. It is capable of infrastructure projects but incapable of actual governance.
Building things doesn’t require confronting anyone. Enforcement does. Regulation does. Maintaining order does. And now even these construction successes are under attack. Trains were first followed by Air travel. What next?
The Image Trap
In 2024 the government won the mandate but it is psychologically defeated. It is paralyzed by anxiety over international perception and the “fascist” label. Any attempt to enforce law gets labeled authoritarian. International media, activists, NGOs all ready with the same script. “Hindu Nationalist” slur keeps Government in check. It is afraid to act. The state is paralyzed. Governance is on hold. Because:Can’t stop crop burning. That’s anti-farmer.
Can’t regulate monopolies. That’s anti-business.
Can’t protect festivals. That’s communal.
Can’t enforce environmental law. That’s fascist.
The result? A government that won elections but lost the ability to govern. Sovereignty exists on paper. In practice, it’s gone.
History Repeats
Weimar Germany faced constant delegitimization. The judiciary went easy on political violence. The state paralyzed itself trying to appear reasonable. That didn’t end well.
The French Fourth Republic couldn’t assert authority over its own military during the Algeria crisis. Paralysis led to sudden collapse.
Italy’s First Republic became afraid to defend itself against terrorism. The state worried more about appearing fascist than actually governing. Endemic paralysis brought systemic failure.
The pattern is consistent. Governments afraid to govern get replaced by forces with no such fears.
The Setup
Years ago, an opposition leader said something odd. Kerosene oil is spread all over the country. The fire just needs igniting.
What is kerosene?
Maybe NGO networks built over decades. Bureaucratic resistance and regulatory capture. Corporate dependencies with foreign ownership in critical sectors. International narrative machinery ready to delegitimize any enforcement. Activist infrastructure designed to frame all governance as oppression.
Is opposition is saying like a protection racket: “Nice country you have here, shame if something happened to it. Pay us (power) and we’ll make sure nothing does.”? Who knows?Conspiracy or dysfunction? The effect is identical. Infrastructure for chaos, ready when needed.
Curious Connections
In 2019, right after one country backed our adversary on a sensitive issue, a major opposition party opened an office there. Around the same time, our dominant airline with significant investment from that same country was expanding its market control. DGCA permitted it to expand.
Coincidence? In politics, that word doesn’t mean much.
The air purifier doesn’t care about conspiracy theories. It just filters what’s real.
The Future
A government that cannot provide breathable air has lost sovereignty. One that cannot maintain basic infrastructure has lost authority. One that cannot enforce regulations on monopolies has lost power. Even if it wins elections. The 2024 victory may prove meaningless. The mandate exists but governance capacity is gone. Paralyzed by anxiety over perception while actual problems multiply unsolved.
History shows paralyzed systems don’t stabilize. They collapse, often suddenly, when everyone realizes the center cannot hold.
The question is not whether the government is authoritarian enough, but whether a functioning state still exists at all. Or just parallel power centers that learned the state won’t enforce anything.
Foreign actors watch and learn.
Before it Gets Terminal
We’re not at the end yet. Close though. Each unpunished defiance moves us closer. Each terror attack during state visits. Each airline creating chaos. Each winter of poison air.
The airline disruption was probably the gentlest proof possible. No bloodshed. Just operational chaos. A demonstration. More will follow.
Expressways will be next, probably. Then digital infrastructure. Each incident calibrated to show the state cannot govern, cannot enforce, cannot protect. Even when it desperately wants to.
The air purifier runs all day now. All night too. It’s the only thing in this house that still works as designed.
Disclaimer: These are observations of patterns in governance. No conspiracy is claimed. Only questions about why the state systematically fails to exercise authority across multiple domains at once. The air purifier’s filter tells its own story. Make of the rest what you will.