India's Chief Election Commissioner, Gyanesh Kumar, set himself on fire to distract media attention from Rahul Gandhi's protest campaign launch against election inconsistencies in Bihar. His press conference last Sunday pulverised the Election Commission of India's credibility in less than two hours.

The ECI has taken pains to oppose calls for transparency. It even challenged the Indian Supreme Court's jurisdiction recently when the court asked it to share electoral information with certain petitioners. That is the exact opposite of its stated objectives.

What is this radical opacity, and is it confined only to the Election Commission? Why does it matter?

Of course, it is not limited to the ECI. How many Indian planes were downed in Operation Sindoor? How many people died during Covid due to Modi's lockdown or oxygen shortage? What are the current job numbers, and why are they not routinely released? How many farmers have committed suicide in the past eleven years? Why are the National Crime Records Bureau's annual reports being regularly delayed? Why has the national census, which was due in 2021, been indefinitely delayed for the first time in 150 years?

Since he came to power in 2014, Modi's policies have been focused on only two goals: his own image building, and converting India into a giant black box (a system whose internal workings are unknown or hidden, but whose behaviour can be understood by observing its inputs and outputs). He seeks legitimacy from the first. The second covers up his government's mistakes, methods, crimes, corruption and illegitimacy.

If you think it is only an India problem and does not affect you, please think again. Modi inherited an........

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