The year that will soon recede into the annals of history will be remembered as a time when the machinery of state revealed a startling fragility in its core functions of governance, security and democratic accountability. From the still-smouldering valleys of Manipur to the grave national security incidents, the fading year laid bare a governance model that is intrinsically reactive and divorced from the fundamental covenant of constitutionalism.The tragedy of Manipur stands as an open wound in the nation’s conscience. The resignation of the state government and the subsequent imposition of President’s Rule in February were not solutions but a tacit acceptance of failure. They do not mask the stark reality of ethnic cleavages that deepen even as democracy is in suspended animation.AdvertisementNothing illustrates the negation of constitutional guarantees better than the repetitive pattern of violence around Christmas, now going back almost a decade.In the realm of national security, 2025 delivered jarring shocks that should have precipitated profound introspection. The horrific Pahalgam terror attack was not merely a security dereliction but also pointed to intelligence and governance failures. The kinetic responses between May 7 and 10 demonstrated military prowess but seemingly missed the strategic forest for the tactical trees. The fundamental question — is conventional retaliation sufficient to establish lasting deterrence against a nuclear-armed adversary committed to asymmetric warfare — remains unanswered even today.The parliamentary debate that followed unfortunately turned into a political point-scoring exercise that failed to address another critical dilemma. Why does India, with a defence budget nearly nine times that of Pakistan and immense diplomatic heft, still find itself trapped in a provocation-and-response cycle?AdvertisementThe blast near the Red Fort in Delhi underscored once again the danger of homegrown radicalisation. It highlighted the urgent need for robust parliamentary oversight over intelligence agencies.This pattern of unforced errors stained India’s foreign policy canvas as well. The much-anticipated upgrade in India-US relations under President Donald Trump dissolved into a diplomatic flux. It exposed the limitations of a dogmatic foreign office apparatus trying to surmount the political agenda of a US administration that seeks to upend eight decades of carefully crafted efforts to establish a rules-based order by its own governments.Closer to home, the “Neighbourhood First” policy is stretched taut. The aftermath of Sheikh Hasina’s ouster in Bangladesh continues to create strategic unease, while the Gen-Z protests in Sri Lanka and now Nepal underline how unfulfilled aspirations can be weaponised by leveraging the reach of social media.The much-touted thaw with China remains a chimera of resumed flights and visas, deliberately dissimulating the unresolved border incursions and an ever-widening debilitating trade deficit that the government has no credible plan of addressing.On the domestic front, the government’s economic and social policy appeared unmoored and driven by electoral panic rather than visionary planning. The income tax and GST cuts were not presented as part of a coherent fiscal philosophy but as reactive measures, the former a populist reaction to the 2024 electoral setback and the latter a hasty response to external trade pressures like the Trump administration’s arbitrary tariffs.The sudden announcement of a caste census marked a clear ideological U-turn devoid of genuine commitment to error-proof data collection, especially that of sub-castes and lineage markers, along with key economic indicators necessary for taking social emancipation to the next level.The subordination of the state to politics has manifested most alarmingly in the deliberate weakening of democratic institutions and norms. The new process for appointing Election Commissioners, having removed the Chief Justice from the selection panel, has produced a Commission that embarked on the legally dubious and democratically dangerous path of the Special Intensive Revision, a mass disenfranchisement campaign masquerading as an electoral roll clean-up exercise.The passage of the SHANTI Act for the nuclear sector is a case study of the dangerous ethos of passing legislation without rigorous parliamentary scrutiny. By capping the liability of operators at a paltry Rs 3,000 crore and completely exempting foreign suppliers, thereby privatising profit and socialising liability, the government has jeopardised public safety for opaque objectives.Replacing the MGNREGA, putting Mahatma Gandhi and Lord Ram at odds, is not just anti-Gandhian but fundamentally regressive. The National Sports Governance law and the Higher Education Bill are unabashed power grabs by the Centre, symptomatic of a deep distrust of federalism and institutional autonomy. The Digital Personal Data Protection Rules of 2025 complete this Orwellian picture, handing the digital souls of citizens to the state with minimal safeguards.Policy has been wholly subsumed by politics, with every decision assessed primarily through the prism of immediate electoral utility. This is not governance, it is a delusion that views the citizenry as subjects to be managed, not as sovereigns to be served. This disturbing theme of accountability deferred also echoed across the nation’s crumbling infrastructure, belying all boasts of monumental achievement.The railways, the lifeline of India, saw a year of avoidable tragedies. This systemic rot extended beyond the tracks. Bridges, symbols of connection, collapsed. These were not acts of God but failures of maintenance and oversight.The tragedy reached the skies in June with the crash of Air India Flight 171 in Ahmedabad, a catastrophe that claimed precious lives and raised grave questions about aviation safety and regulatory oversight that are sought to be deflected or at worst buried, seemingly to protect global corporate interests. The spectre of duopolies has become entrenched in every sector of the Indian economy. Nothing demonstrates this better than IndiGo’s brazen defiance of FDTL norms.Each catastrophe was met with a familiar script. Expressions of anguish, announcements of ex-gratia, and promises of inquiries, but the ministers concerned remained insensitive without as much as a statement accepting moral responsibility. This pointed to a pervasive culture of prioritising optics over accountability.This grim panorama, however, is also a clarion call for the Opposition. At 230 seats, the INDIA bloc collectively holds not just the right, but the solemn duty, to offer a united alternative.The agenda is painfully clear — rural distress, staggering unemployment, corrosive inflation, and deliberate subversion of the social welfare safety net. The Opposition must move beyond fragmented rhythms and forge a united, policy-driven front leveraging issues that resonate across the spectrum. It must articulate clear alternatives on national security, federalism, economic regeneration and institutional integrity. That, essentially, was the mandate of 2024The writer is a lawyer, third-term MP and former I&B minister