The history of constitutionalism around the world has been a chronicle of efforts to curb the brute nature of executive might, to protect the freedoms and liberties of the ordinary and the powerless. Unlike the ages of kings where a single monarch would make law, enforce it and decide disputes, the modern states spread these three functions across the legislature, judiciary and executive. Despite the distribution of power across the three separate arms of the states, the executive is the most powerful precisely because it controls the muscle on the ground by exercising police powers that can curb the rights of citizens. A successful constitutional democracy is one where the rule of law can contain the base instincts of those in power and guarantee the freedoms of those who are powerless.
The events that have unfolded in Kashmir over the last days should serve as a stark reminder of the vulnerability of the common Indian to the truly frightening power of executive might. In which other constitutional democracy can an entire state be silenced for almost two weeks, especially when a decision regarding their future has been taken by the head of state? Yet, this is exactly what happened in Kashmir in the build-up to the abrogation of Article 370. It may be worthwhile to understand the three instruments of power that facilitated the silence in Kashmir because each of these instruments applies to even the rest of us in India.
