B T RANADIVE The Intensified Crisis of the System THE year that has passed since the assumption of power by Indira Gandhi and the Congress (I) has given nothing but uncertainty and instability to the country. Nothing seems to function and the malfunctioning system weighs heavily against the people whose anger grows every day. Political protests, agitations, movements and strikes are the necessary accompaniments of the developing crisis. Its acute stage is represented by a general breakdown of the law and order, the violation of the rule of law with regard to the mass of millions of citizens who are normally not involved in political and economic movements. The silent multitude which generally pulls its weight in favour of the status quo now finds life uncertain and has to face tortures and humiliation at the hands of the anti-socials and the police, the latter often working in alliance with the former. It is sometimes difficult to discover where the one ends and the other begins. The looting of trains, the dacoities in the capital city of Delhi, the holdups at night in the capital and many other state capitals and other cities, the chain snatching, the kidnapping and rape of women by gangsters and at police stations, the lack of security and safety for women outside and inside the police