Under the government of India Act of 1935, a federal court of India was set up to decide on differences between provinces and the federal state, of which all were rulers under British subsidiary alliance. On 28th January, 1950, the supreme court of India had it's first sitting. India's identity lies in it's federalism. The states that make the union. Then, the states as well as the centre were mostly under 1-party rule. The federation of India was glued together by it's institutions. The Supreme Court was one, the RBI another, the election commission another, parliament another. From education boards to grant commissions, institution building is the root of creating stable democratic practices. The institutions serve the state. But in the end, an institution is not a building, or a piece of paper, it's the people in it. Nobody is bothered more about an institution more than it's alumni said Nr Narayana Murthy some time ago. As citizens, we're all the students and permanent alumni of the institution of India. Today, amid a public CBI fracas, RBI wrangling, black money wars with former election commissioners and RBI governors and public dissent with the supreme court, the opposition is accusing the government of making institutions that protect and preserve the country bend to their political will. Today, the finance minister of the country in an interview to us has raised an counter scenario. The move to bar the CBI from entering a state without permission by Mamata and naidu are the points of information. This Jaitley says, is a core attack on institutions by those seeking to protect their ill gotten gains from the long arc of justice. This matters. By banning the CBI, questioning the election commission on EVM vote fixing, looking to impeach the supreme court chief justice? Amid this, who has eroded some of our greatest institutions is the question before us tonight. But if institutions are about people, then it must be in the people that we choose to trust or not. Every day, some state satrap does a photo op, or drops a hint of some Gathbandhan or the other. Whether it's Naidu-HDK in Karnataka or staling in Tamil Nadu or Mayawati and Akhilesh and Mamata, with our without the congress, permutation after combination is being dangled before us. Doesn't matter if it's this, that or all of the above says Jaitley. The simple question before the people of India in 2019 is whether they want Modi, or don't want Modi. The rest are just a motley crew, yet to rise to the comparitive of being considered instead of Modi. 2 premises that set up a vast, comprehensive, but in the end a simple point of discussion.