In the absence of institutional restraint, and of independent journalism, which is not afraid to excavate the wrong-doings of the rulers and expose the mechanism through which their dark deeds are performed, democracy in India can today be said to be on the brink of a precipice. It has never been laid so low before, though there have been bad times for democracy in the past and unedifying policy failures. The present government s actions show that it has been ideology-driven & has limited inclination for the material development of society. Its aim appears to be no less than the transformation of both state and society in India along prescriptive religious lines through the misuse of state power.