Jagdeep Chokkar's vision of India becoming a transparent, robust democracy remains unfinished. It is a work-in-progress. But his legacy is forever.

India's democracy has always been a mixed bag; inherently vulnerable, partially functional, distinctively pro-rich and the powerful, and post-2014, exposing a strikingly soft underbelly if pressured by an authoritarian disposition. Democratically elected dictatorship has been the charitable expression to define India of late.

That's why Jagdeep Chhokar mattered. That's why Jagdeep Chhokar’s death is sad news. This indefatigable crusader for electoral reforms is, in my opinion, a resistance-like hero of our times, especially as India entered a dark Orwellian like space almost imperceptibly before our very eyes, in several small steps and a few giant leaps.

Everyone knows that political funding is the elephant in the room when it comes to big-ticket corruption in India. The Electoral Bonds scheme was a financial instrument that legitimised duplicitous political donations, and the brazen inclusion of the clause that assured anonymity of the donor made the campaign finance scheme no different from a Ponzi scheme. Not surprisingly, the Supreme Court of India struck it down as unconstitutional.

But I am convinced that Chhokar whose ADR ( Association for Democratic Reforms ) was one of the petitioners, was not as thrilled as many were. For one, the SC judgement took long in coming. In the interim (from 2019 onwards)  the "suspicious contributions" circulated in the state assembly elections. Worse, despite calling out the Electoral Bonds for lacking in transparency etc and subject to quid pro quo deals, there were no proscriptions on the usage of these "tainted monies" by the SC.

Thus, effectively the illegality of the scheme, remained at the end of the day, a mere paper indictment. The SC could have asked the political parties to freeze their electoral bonds balances in an escrow account, pending a through investigation into their origins. That did not happen. India would wake up to the mafia-style extortions and sweetheart deals that accompanied this flawed arrangement.

For the man whose pioneering juggernaut sought to strengthen Indian democracy at its grassroots, this must have been a huge disappointment. And yet, Chhokar had through his extraordinary perseverance helped halt a perverse scheme that had it not been challenged would have further corrupted an already promiscuous system.

46% of elected Lok Sabha MPs ( 2024) have a criminal record; this damning reality of India's representatives in the sacrosanct chambers of Parliament would have remained shrouded in secrecy had not Chhokar/ADR taken it up as a mission for deodorising Indian politics. The fact that the Prime Minister's educational certificates (as yet publicly undisclosed)  have become a topic of confabulation across Indian homes is because ADR ensured that such certificates were made mandatory disclosures in written affidavits by prospective candidates seeking public representation.

Chhokar's apprehension that ordinary, underprivileged people could be disenfranchised in Bihar on account of the SIR exercise by the Election Commission has already proved to be a successful project: the SC has asked EC to accept Aadhaar as the twelfth document for ensuring enrolment in voter rolls. It has overnight addressed the core problem that the EC was stubbornly, almost irrationally, refusing to accede to.

Jagdeep Chhokar's vision of India becoming a transparent, robust democracy might still be unfinished. It is a work-in-progress.  But his legacy is forever. Chhokar will remain the OG, the Mozart of Indian democracy.