Parties have a difficult job in our diverse society and very often the politicians are as much victims of a vicious cycle as they are villains. Revulsion of politics is dangerous. We cannot afford to invite authoritarian solutions.

Neither should this be viewed as a turf battle between parliament and judiciary. No democrat can question the supremacy of elected legislature in law making. Equally, the judiciary has the ultimate responsibility to interpret the constitution and uphold fundamental rights. True, there are legitimate concerns about judicial usurpation of executive and legislative authority. But this is the wrong case to contest judicial role.

Compulsions of the first-past-the-post system have led to several distortions. We need to look at proportional representation with reasonable thresholds and separation of powers at state and local levels. This judgment opens up many vistas, and the battle for reclaiming our republic for the people has just begun.

 

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