It is not just the Supreme Court.

"India has reached an institutional abyss," wrote Prof S Rajagopalan. "It all began with the infamous press conference where four senior-most judges rebelled against their head, the Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra. And since then, it seems every branch of government has entered a perverse race to the bottom." The government has been locked in a battle with the Supreme Court over appointment of judges, repeatedly rejecting recommendations of the Collegium, possibly to fill higher courts with judges grateful to it. "A malleable judiciary potentially serves the executive the most -- after all, it is the biggest litigant in the judicial system." The parliament has oversight over the judiciary, but the government has stayed silent on the disagreement between judges, perhaps to weaken it. The opposition Congress wanted to file a impeachment motion against the CJI but this was denied by the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, Venkaiah Naidu. Although he did the right thing, " Naidu acted well beyond the discretion granted to him under Judges Inquiries Act, 1968; he did not even refer to the Act in his order while summarily dismissing the impeachment motion." How deep is the abyss? Out of 221 MLAs elected to the Karnataka Assembly in elections on 12 May, 77, that is 34%, have serious criminal charges against them. The Governor called the BJP to form the government, without talking to the other parties, on the basis of a letter claiming support of 111 MLAs, when it has only 104 MLAs. The Governor has been called a "BJP stooge" by the Congress. Uncooperative governors have been unceremoniously sacked by the Prime Minister in the past. No one wants to give up unproductive luxury at taxpayer expense. By allowing the BJP to form a government until they can prove their majority on the floor of the assembly they have been given time to bribe MLAs of other parties to defect, apparently offering as much as Rs 1 billion each. Obviously, bribes will not be paid by cheque, but by cash. This by the party of the Prime Minister who talks very big on black money. So, the Right to Information Act is being slowly choked to death by not appointing officers to the Central Information Commission and by deliberately stone-walling by civil servants. One minister wanted to withdraw accreditation of journalists for transmitting 'fake news', hurriedly overturned by the Prime Minister when he realised that the fallout was going to be costly. While the Prime Minister is trying to be the supreme leader in India he has not made our defense materially strong so that India is "less a leading power and more a pleading power", wrote Prof R Sagar. If one man has all the power institutions will be abysmal. No one gives up power.