(This is Part Six of a series that analyses the results of an ambitious survey conducted across India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh to try and find out what citizens of the three independent sovereign republics think about each other, about the state of democracy in their country; about gender, religious and ethnic freedom; achievements and failures and about institutions among others.)
In recent times, the so-called four pillars of Indian democracy have been involved or rather, embroiled in a seemingly unseemly war of words. The Supreme Court delivered a verdict whereby the executive will no longer have the sole prerogative of appointing the Chief Election Commissioner and two more election commissioners. Many have criticised the verdict as an unwarranted intrusion by the court into other domains.
In any democracy, debates and even disagreements between key institutions are not always unwarranted as long as these institutions continue to retain public faith in them. How much trust do Indians have in key institutions of our democracy? Some startling answers have been provided by Indian citizens during an exclusive survey conducted by CVoter Foundation & the Centre For Policy Research in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. There are quite a few wake-up calls too.
More than 15,000 respondents from across three countries were asked a set of questions related to attitudes towards partition, neighbours, trust in other countries and domestic institutions, the economy, society, politics, and gender equality among other things. In this column that focuses solely on responses from India, trust in institutions remains fairly robust though it is a definitive wake-up call for some.