India, Jan. 26 -- When power moves from files to filters, democracy needs a new guarantee: reasons, reversals, and responsibility.Republic Day has a strange rhythm. We celebrate the Constitution in the morning, and then spend the afternoon watching the country behave as if the Constitution is a suggestion. Still, the day matters. Not because it makes India perfect, but because it reminds us what India is supposed to be: a Republic where power can be questioned. That idea is now facing a problem, the kind that doesn't look like a crisis until it has already become normal. India is building a parallel state.

Not a shadow government, not a coup, not a conspiracy. Something far more boring - and therefore far more dangerous.A parallel state ...