India, Nov. 2 -- In a parliamentary democracy, the opposition is generally understood as the political party or coalition that challenges the government and seeks to replace it at the next election. But this conventional understanding is increasingly becoming inadequate. Democracy cannot afford to leave the responsibility of holding the government accountable exclusively to political parties whose ultimate objective is to capture state power.

India needs a distributed and decentralised opposition, comprising students, youth movements, trade unions, professional associations, civil society organisations, independent journalists, academics and ordinary citizens. Such an arrangement would not make political parties irrelevant. Rather, it w...