Q.Why does the cartoonist call the new Iraqi Constitution a 'castle of cards'? Would this apply to India's Constitution?

Constitutions are rarely subverted by ordinary people acting together — far more often, they are subverted by small, organised groups seeking to enlarge their own power at everyone else's expense. A well-designed constitution anticipates this risk and deliberately fragments power across society so that no single group can easily capture control of the whole system. One central technique is ensuring no single institution enjoys a monopoly of power: the Indian Constitution, for example, horizontally fragments power across the Legislature, the Executive and the Judiciary, and further distributes authority to independent statutory bodies such as the Election Commission, so that even if one institution attempted to subvert the Constitution, other institutions would be positioned to check that attempt. A second, closely related aspect of intelligent institutional design is finding the right balance between treating certain values, norms and procedures as fixed and authoritative, and allowing enough flexibility for the constitution's operation to adapt to genuinely changing circumstances — a constitution that is too rigid risks bre …