At the grass-roots level of democracy, many gram pradhans are becoming powerful by grabbing land and resources meant for the welfare of the people they represent. Fear of these musclemen has led to the shrinking of the space for dissent and discourse in democracy. The murders of Superintendent of Police Narendra Kumar in Morena, Madhya Pradesh and more recently, Deputy Superintendent of Police Zia-ul-Haq in Kunda in Uttar Pradesh by the mafi a are indicative of how far these goons, many of them patronised by political parties, are able to go.