🐍 Citizens Give Powers to These Serpents in Public Robes: A Statutory Audit of Modi-Era Governance

By Rajnish Ratnakar

RTI Ref: CICOM/R/E/25/00693 

 First Appeal Ref: CICOM/A/E/25/00212

🧠 Perception Over Statute: The New Governance Algorithm

In today’s India, governance isn’t anchored in law—it’s choreographed through optics, slogans, and curated silence. The RTI Act, Public Records Act, and constitutional guarantees are routinely bypassed. What matters is not what’s written in statute, but what’s projected on screens.

The Modi government has perfected this model. It runs not on compliance, but on emotive control. Citizens are fed nationalism while institutions are hollowed out. And tragically, it’s the very citizens—through votes, silence, or misplaced faith—who empower these serpents in public robes.

🧨 Modi: The Most Centralized Ruler Since Indira Gandhi

Since Indira Gandhi’s Emergency, no Prime Minister has centralized power so aggressively. Modi’s regime has:

• Undermined statutory institutions like CIC and CVC
• Appointed consultants to adjudicate citizen appeals
• Buried custodianship duties under bureaucratic fog
• Replaced certified records with curated narratives
• Converted constitutional rights into procedural illusions

This isn’t democracy. It’s executive absolutism, wrapped in saffron optics.

📜 My RTI Audit: A Case Study in Institutional Sabotage

In July 2025, I filed RTI No. CICOM/R/E/25/00693 to the Central Information Commission (CIC). I asked for:

• Certified records of consultant appointments
• Legal opinions on culpability under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS)
• Custodianship mapping of public records
• Disclosure of Secretary’s statutory duties
• Internal norms for proactive disclosure

Instead of answers, I received:

• Fragmented replies from three departments
• No certified copies or certified denial
• No record of consultant appointments
• No legal opinion
• No custodianship mapping
• No proactive disclosure
• No invocation of exemptions
• No transfer under Section 6(3)

This wasn’t just evasion—it was statutory fraud.

⚖️ First Appeal: Adjudication by a Consultant

I filed First Appeal No. 1A00212. But the FAA was not a statutory officer—he was a contractual consultant and Registrar of CIC. He judged his own house. His reply (Order No. 1AR00202) was vague, evasive, and structurally compromised.

He didn’t collate replies. He didn’t adjudicate violations. He didn’t order certified denial. He didn’t recommend disciplinary action. He didn’t issue a speaking order. He didn’t recognize constitutional injury.

This was adjudicatory sabotage—enabled by citizens who unknowingly legitimize such structures.

🔐 Legal and Constitutional Exposure

CIC and FAA are now exposed under:

• BNS 316(5) – Omission causing injury
• BNS 277 – Disobedience of law
• BNS 331 – Criminal breach of trust
• Article 19(1)(a) – Obstruction of speech
• Article 14 – Denial of equality
• Article 21 – Denial of due process

🧠 The Real Dictatorship: Institutional Capture

Modi may be the face—but the real dictatorship lies in:

• Consultants adjudicating citizen appeals
• Institutions shielding each other under DoPT
• Citizens unknowingly legitimizing opacity
• Statutes being replaced by slogans
• Records being buried under perception

This isn’t democracy. It’s constitutional theatre.

🙏 My Appeal to Citizens

• Stop empowering serpents with silence
• Demand certified records—not curated narratives
• File RTIs that audit institutions—not just seek data
• Challenge consultant adjudication wherever it appears
• Reclaim the Republic—clause by clause, department by department