“However good a Constitution may be, if those who are implementing it are not good, it will prove to be bad. However bad a Constitution may be, if those implementing it are good, it will prove to be good”.
This quote by the chairman of drafting committee Dr Ambedkar makes me think that we need to save good people more than saving the constitution. Failing to protect good people has ensured amendments which have mellowed down the spirit of the preamble of the constitution. Before we discuss this issue let’s analyse ,” save the constitution” movement. To start with one has to make few assumptions;
● The Constitution is in real danger .
● People who are crying foul must be sincere who abide by the constitution.
● There is a dictator who is destroying the constitutional framework.
The answer to all these questions is a big no! Let’s see the facts.
1. Jawahar Lal Nehru was heading the three committees representing states union and union power. Therefore He was in control of the full process as prime minister of India. He moved the objective resolution.Objective Resolution enshrined the aspirations and values of the constitution-makers. Under this, the people of India were guaranteed social, economic and political justice, equality and fundamental freedoms. This resolution was unanimously adopted on 22 January 1947 and the Preamble to the Constitution is based on it. Rajendra Prasad, Dr B R Ambedkar and Sardar Patel were heading other committees.
2. The directive principle and fundamental rights govern the spirit of the constitution.
3. 299 members worked to shape the constitution, its first meeting was held on 9 December 1946
4. It took members to work diligently to frame the constitution: 2 years, 11 months and 17 days. Public was given the opportunity to comment and give suggestions.
In the past , who tempered with the spirit of the constitution?
Under these circumstances the Indian constitution should have not undergone too many amendments but to the contrary the first amendment came very early and one of the sections amended in 1951 was to curtail freedom of speech. In 1955 amendment was to put Restrictions on property rights and…, and on 8th December 1971 Restrict property rights and compensation in case the state takes over private property.
However, the Supreme Court quashed a part of Article 31C (4) to the extent it snatched the power of judicial review, in a landmark case of Kesavananda Bharati vs state of India (1973) 4 SCC 225 which for the first time enunciated the basic structure doctrine.
Unperturbed by this the dictatorial Mrs Gandhi enacted 28 December Abolition of privy purses paid to former rulers of princely states which were incorporated into the Indian Republic. This was the government breaking its own promise.
The draconian amendment 39 was to protect the prime minister from charges of corruption. As if it was not enough the most draconian amendment 42 was enacted under the second prime minister of the Nehru Gandhi family, this Amendment passed during internal emergency. Provided for curtailment of fundamental rights, and changes to the basic structure of the constitution by making India a "Sovereign Socialist Secular Democratic Republic".
The amendment affected 54 sections! difficult to believe but darbari congressmen were chanting ‘Indira is India and India is Indira’ shamelessly. No movement took place to save the constitution by any congressman?
It was the non congress government of Morarji Desai which removed some of these draconian rules by enacting 43 and 44th amendments. A true saviour of the constitution, should carry the picture of Morarji Desai and Jai Prakash Narain for saving the constitution, the present bunch of pseudos who carry the book without reading it, are least bothered. The constitution was saved by these two amendments and the villain was the grandmother of Present team of Priyanka and Rahul ji.
Harsh truth which this constitution bachao gang will not like to know!
Total 106 amendments have taken place and all amendments which play foul with the spirit of the constitution are passed during the congress regime.
● Five times the court struck down a few parts of these amendments.
● Rajiv Gandhi enacted a law to reverse the judgment of the Supreme Court in the Shah Bano case. The poor Arif Mohamed Khan defended the case without knowing the last minute U-turn by his party.
● The much debated and disputed waqf board law was created by congress in 1954 and given more teeth in 1995 and 2013, did this gang raise any alarm at
that time.
● Mrs Gandhi tamed the judiciary by overlooking the senior most judge HR Khanna for upholding the constitution,for the appointment of Chief justice of India. This led to evolution of the present collegium system where the judiciary got rid of the supremacy of executives. It is ironic that the congress may have to approach the present CJI who is the nephew of the same HR Khanna.
Whether the save the constitution project can be called save our right to play with the constitution?
"hoax cry of saving the constitution" implies that the call or campaign to "save the constitution" is insincere, exaggerated, or used as a political tool for personal gain. These leaders use the rhetoric of defending the constitution to rally support or discredit their opponents, without any genuine concern for constitutional principles. The data given above along with the fact that Rahul Gandhi shamelessly tore the ordinance passed by parliament by his own party. It was an act of washing dirty linen of cheap politics in a press conference.
Misuse of section 356 by successive prime ministers of congress.
Article 356 of the Constitution is one of the most keenly debated and discussed in the Constituent Assembly.
Dr. Ambedkar said, “such articles will never be called into operation and that they would remain a dead letter".
They were worried that if and when it would be misused, it would violate the federal character of the polity envisaged by them. It seems that they were very much sure that the provision of the article would not be used to strengthen cooperative federalism. As observed by Shiban Lal Saksena “... I feel that by these articles we are reducing the autonomy of the States to a farce”
It seems that the congress prime ministers were bent upon making their fear a reality. The first misuse took place as early as 1951. Nehru Ji used it 7 times. Mrs Gandhi is leading the pack out of 134 incidence, full details are given below
S.No Prime Minister in Power No. of times President rule is imposed
1 Jawaharlal Nehru 7
2 Indira Gandhi 48
3 Rajiv Gandhi 6
4 PV Narasimha Rao 11
5 Manmohan Singh 10
6 Narendra Modi 5
( https://factly.in/presidents-rule-…)
These facts indicate that the present NDA regime has not used 356 to topple majority governments. One can thank the Supreme Court for taking a tough stand and issuing guidelines to be followed.
If congress is the villain playing with the spirit of the constitution then.Why make a "Hoax Cry" of Saving the Constitution.
In India public memory is short lived. It is forgiving and forgetting. The loss of half Kashmir, failure to protect Tibet from China, losing a huge land parcel to China in 1962, imposition of emergency and atrocities thereof has not impacted its ability to win election. The country has suffered, many states developed regional parties to escape the feudal mindset of congress. The country became bankrupt due to the 1971 war and supporting over one crore refugees, but congress successfully blamed the Janata government for mortgaging gold given by women during the 1971 war. These successes have encouraged it to create fear and reap the benefits. Recently held elections also multiplied its parliament seat number by using the hoax cry, “reservation and constitution in danger”. Few other factors are discussed below.
1. Selective or Inconsistent Advocacy: The cry to "save the constitution" seems to be selective, only raised when it suits the political interests of the group making the claim. Today they are fiercely advocating for the constitution when it is in opposition but ignored constitutional violations or abuses when they were in power.
2. Exploiting Populism: The cry of "saving the constitution" is being used as a tool for populist appeal. By alleging the ruling party as unpatriotic or anti-constitutional, political leaders may attempt to gain public support without addressing the real issues.
3. Diverting Attention from Real Issues: By using the cry of "saving the constitution" to divert attention from more pressing or controversial issues, such as corruption cases in courts and unrest in the party, losing supremacy in coalition etc.
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4. Weaponizing Legal Arguments: Present protest is to label ruling party actions as unconstitutional despite the fact that the ruling party is implementing their election manifesto of past and present. A few examples are abolition of section 370 and other similar acts. Building of Ram janm Bhumi temple and cases registered against under the “ na khaunga na khane dunga”pledge.
Does a party really need to create a fake narrative or is there a better option?
As of 4th June 2024 NDA has a government in 19 States and 1 Union Territory. I.N.D.I. Alliance has a government in 8 States and 2 union Territories.
Instead of creating ruckus in parliament if these leaders focus on good governance then they can beat the hype of Gujrat model. If Kejarival is able to make Yamuna front better than the Sabarmati front then APP will not Be required to offer freebies. People will benefit from freebies on one side and the anomaly of not paying salaries to employees on the other hand will force the opposition to play these games. Parliament can not be won by noise and anarchy. The numbers matter there and in the present scenario these numbers are not favourable.
Can the I.N.D.I alliance learn from the successful movement of the past?
Independent India has seen 4 movements worth mentioning, most successful was the student movement led by Jai Prakash Narain. Mrs Gandhi tried the most draconian measure by implementing an emergency however she lost miserably in 1977 to bring the Janata Party to power.
Bharat Yatra (1983)
Chandra Shekhar went on a nationwide padyatra in 1983 from Kanyakumari to New Delhi, to know the country better,He travelled nearly 4,260 km and nearly six months and created Bharat Yatra Centres in various parts of the country and set up a Bharat Yatra Trust. The movement could not survive long.
VP Singh fights against corruption.
Late V P Singh launched a war against corruption at high places as finance minister in Rajiv Gandhi’s government.V P Singh used to say that if we have to clean the Ganga from corruption, it needs to be cleaned from the top and not from the down.And people believed in him that this man was fighting against corruption.
These three stalwarts were trusted by the public and got public support.
In democracy the opposition has the responsibility to keep a check on the ruling party but a political movement is created in public not in parliament where numbers don’t add. At present most of the political parties have lost connection with the public. Their leaders are wooing the public either by offering freebies or through appointing consultants who manipulate the system using analytic skills.
Conclusion.
Neither the constitution is under threat nor the opposition has the competence to protect it. Most of the time their governments are being pulled up by courts for violating the spirit of the constitution. It is difficult to find a single government which is not being pulled up for violating freedom of speech, persecution and many other issues. Ongoing discourse in parliament is proof that the move has boomeranged.
By Rakesh Kumar
(The content of this article reflects the views of writers and contributors, not necessarily those of the publisher and editor. All disputes are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of competent courts and forums in Delhi/New Delhi only)
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