Democracy is preferred over any other political system mostly because people don't have to rebel every time they need to change their rulers. Let's face the truth - power corrupts and absolute power gives birth to dictatorship. Indian political system does not nurture the idea of opposition as it gives power to parties, not to individual MPs, the ruling party gets control of CBI, tax etc. It can scare the opposition if it wants to. So the opposition, in the end, remains ineffective. Supreme court, the guardian of constitution, is the only one that can keep the government in check. But think about Prashant Bhushan case - if he doesn't apologize for his post (it was about present condition of Indian judiciary with a picture of chief justice of India), he would have to pay fine or face 6 months of imprisonment. The newspaper articles that criticise government's policy get biting comments from readers online but the ones who focus on government's success rarely get a comment (this I have personally noticed in many famous news apps). If there is no community that tracks who is writing what, then how is it possible ? If media is controlled by government then it is very easy to shape and influence public opinion. The way lockdown was imposed and demonitisation was announced (we had to wait for hours in front of banks to change our old currencies, remember ?) clearly shows alarming signs of authoritarianism. India's opposition parties, on the other hand, are rudderless due to lack of a strong leader. They need to find a new ideology with good slogans for restoring public confidence in them soon. Otherwise, we won't have a sound option next time we vote.