The decline of parliament

In any democracy, parliaments are the institutions where the two mainstays of democratic culture that Levitsky and Ziblatt mention in their book— "mutual toleration and institutional forbearance"—are supposed to flourish, for the simple reason that the opposition is also represented in these aptly named representative assemblies. But such values can only materialize if parliament remains an important institution whose rules are respected by the executive.

In Modi's India, parliament has experienced a decline. This evolution is paradoxical, because when he entered the Indian parliament for the first time in 2014 as prime minister designate, Narendra Modi bowed his forehead to the stairs to express his deep respect for what he called the "temple of democracy." Retrospectively, this episode looks like another of his theatrical displays, as never before has an Indian prime minister neglected parliament so constantly. On average, he has spoken 3.6 times a year in parliament: 22 times in 2014–2019 (fewer times even than H. D. Deve Gowda, who was prime minister for only two years). In contrast, A. B. Vajpayee made 16.7 speeches a year in parliament, 77 in six years. And Manmohan Singh stands in the middle, having spoken 48 times in ten years in parliament. In 2018, Narendra Modi spent fourteen hours in the Lok Sabha and ten hours in the Rajya Sabha, in contrast to Manmohan Singh, who did not speak much but who came and listened.