Prashant Bhushan explained that the Modi government is undermining the independence of the judiciary, using threats and manipulation. Even the top court, Bhushan claimed, has not stood up against these violations.
Fords, New Jersey – June 5, 2025: Senior Indian civil rights lawyer Prashant Bhushan has made serious allegations against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, saying it is secretly trying to control the Supreme Court judges in India by using blackmail tactics and surveillance.
Speaking at a public event titled “The State of Democracy in India” hosted by the Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC) in New Jersey, Bhushan revealed that the Indian government has developed a hidden strategy to pressurise judges by gathering private information and using it against them.
“The most sinister manner of suborning the independence of the judiciary which this government has devised is to create dossiers. They ask all the agencies – the Enforcement Directorate, the Central Bureau of Investigation, the Income Tax Department, the National Investigation Agency, and local police – to create dossiers against every important judge, every judge who is likely to become Chief Justice. And if they find anything … they use that to blackmail those judges.”
He went on to say that the judges were being directly threatened:
“If you do not toe our line on this issue [then] we will have to expose you or put your children in jail.”
Bhushan, who has been a lawyer for over 40 years, emphasised that these were not just rumours or hearsay.
“This is not a rumor. This is happening.”
He explained that the Modi government is undermining the independence of the judiciary, using threats and manipulation. Even the top court, Bhushan claimed, has not stood up against these violations.
“Unfortunately, the Supreme Court and its judges just do not have the guts to haul them up for contempt.”
Because of this silence, Bhushan said, the government has managed to interfere in judicial appointments and block independent judges from entering the judiciary.
“[The government] stifle the selection of some independent judges.”
He further alleged that:
“Especially judges belonging to the minority communities” were being ignored or passed over, “even when the collegium reiterated their names.”
Bhushan compared the current situation to the dark period of the Emergency (1975-77), when the judiciary surrendered its authority to the government and allowed suspension of citizens’ fundamental rights.
“There is a fear” among judges, he said. “Modi’s strong fascist government had made many honest judges fearful.”
“There is a fear” so deep that judges “were unwilling to challenge the government, even when constitutional rights were openly violated.”
Bhushan also warned that it’s not just the judiciary under threat. He said many important democratic institutions in India are losing their independence.
“By and large, in the last 10 years… the Election Commission has ceased to be an independent body. It is seen as a yes-man body which just toes the line of the government.”
He highlighted that even the appointment process for election commissioners was changed so that the Chief Justice of India (CJI) was removed from the selection committee.
According to Bhushan, other institutions like the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) have also become weak.
“The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) had stopped auditing the accounts of governments run by the ruling party. Those audits have come down to less than one-fourth of what they used to be.”
He alleged that powerful investigation agencies like the ED, CBI, Income Tax Department, NIA, and local police were being used as tools by the government.
“More than 90% of the cases under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act… were against opposition politicians,” he said, quoting an Indian Express report.
“If they joined the BJP… the cases against them were immediately dropped.”
Bhushan said that India’s mainstream media has stopped playing its independent role.
“Most of the mainstream media has become lapdog media.”
He also explained how corporate money and favouritism have corrupted India’s electoral system, especially through the electoral bonds scheme.
“It became clear that the BJP had received more than half of all the electoral bonds that had been purchased. So out of the Rs.16,000 crores worth of electoral bonds which had been purchased, the BJP alone had got more than Rs. 8,000 crores.”
He added that some journalists had uncovered clear links between donations and government rewards.
“This company which gave this electoral bond to this party received this contract from the government being run by that party… or this kind of favor was received by this company from the government which was being run by the party to whom they had given those electoral bonds.”
According to him, this money-based political system is dangerous for Indian democracy.
“Our whole system of representative democracy or elections have largely become a game of money. And if you look at the amount of money today… this whole system of democracy in this country has become a game of from money to power and then using that power to make more money.”
To counter this growing control over institutions, Bhushan called on civil society to act.
“A truth army… a volunteer army of people which spread the truth instead of falsehoods, which spread love instead of hate.”
He proposed that such a team should function like the BJP’s IT cell, but should instead work to protect democracy.
“Doing the opposite of what they are doing.”
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