CONSTITUTION DAY - 26 NOVEMBER
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE NATION’s CONSCIENCE
AS INDIA CELEBRATES ITS 1ST CONSTITUTION
DAY, A THROWBACK TO THE EARLY YEARS
The Constitution of India was handwritten and calligraphed in both
English and Hindi — not typeset or printed. The original copies are kept in a special helium-filled case in the library of the Parliament.
No foreign consultants were involved in framing it. The founders were adamant that Indians should have full control over the drafting
procedure. Thus, the assistance of several lawyer-members were
sought: Nehru, Prasad, Ambedkar, and Alladi Krishnaswami Ayyar were part of the historic draft.
It consists of 90,000 words besides illustrations of events
from Indian history by Nandalal Bose of Santiniketan and others
284 members of the Constituent Assembly (including 15 women)
signed the hand-written document on January 24,1950. It came
into force two days later.
By the time the Assembly convened for its final session
in January 1950, Rajendra Prasad had been elected
as India’s fi rst President.After members of the Assembly
signed the document — with Nehru being the first —
Prasad decided that he also must sign. And he chose to
insert his name in the space between the last line of the text
and Nehru’s signature.
The Constituent Assembly took two years, eleven months
and seventeen days to draft the document after the drafting panel
submitted it to them.
The Indian Constitution is the longest in the world,with 44 articles, 12 schedules and 100 amendments. The American constitution
is the shortest.
India’s constitution has been hailed as one of the world’s
best Constitution,especially since it has only seen 100 amendments so far.
The Constitution has borrowed several features from other
constitutions. The concepts of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity were
taken from the French constitution, the concept of 5-year Plans from
the USSR and the Directive Principles from Ireland
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Constitution is sublime, failings are of our own making
As a college student, I remember hearing a speech by the legendary Palkhivala on what he called “the Sublime Constitution”.
There can be no doubt that the epithet coined by him was
anything but fully deserved. The government’s decision to characterise November 26 as Constitution Day is a remarkable step — albeit a token of gratitude which this nation owes to one who can fairly be called the principal architect of the Constitution.
The framing of the Constitution was a painstaking exercise. On August 29, 1947 the Constituent Assembly appointed a
drafting committee (B R Ambedkar was chairman) which presented a draft in February 1948. This draft was discussed and altered and finally adopted by the Constituent Assembly on November 26,
1949. The Indian Constitution drew upon models in countries such as the US, Australia, Canada, Ireland, but crafted its own architecture. Ambedkar in his speech to the Constituent
Assembly quoted the powerful words of Grote [the Greek historian] “…
The diffusion of constitutional morality….
Is the indispensable condition of government at once free and peaceable…Since even any powerful and obstinate
minority may render the working of a free institution impracticable even without being strong enough to conquer ascendancy
for themselves.” With his characteristic bluntness
Ambedkar said: “Constitutional morality is not a natural sentiment. It has to be cultivated. We must realise that our people
have yet to learn it. Democracy in India is only a top-dressing on an Indian soil, which is essentially undemocratic.” We are no longer an infant democracy— 65 years is a fairly long time in the life of a nation, sufficient to assess whether we have imbibed constitutional morality, in sufficient measure. India has had its share of problems, the biggest being the economic non-inclusiveness of nearly
1/3rd of its population. Sociologically, we continue to let caste and religion divideus. Gender justice is a distance away.
India is the perfect social cauldron where strife could be a way of life. Add to this mix the freedom of speech and a media
driven by popularity ratings — there’s hardly any surprise that on its surface India has started to appear as an intolerant society. But the gains of six decades of democracy should never be underestimated.The biggest success of Indian democracy
has been its ability to sustain the system of a popular government — the experiment of 1975 and its aftermath has hopefully dispelled any fantasies of dictatorship harboured by any political leader.
The second has been that, despite populist attempts at dismantling the basic freedoms as a ruse to usher in a socialist order, we have maintained the fundamental freedoms engrafted in the Constitution
— the gift of freedom for which our forebears took on the might of the British Empire and sacrificed their lives. An adjunct of this is that the Supreme Court in particular, and judiciary generally, is considered perhaps the world’s most powerful institution of its kind.
Barring certain aberrations, SC has been at the forefront of the battle to preserve these freedoms, using judiciously its power
to enforce constitutional rights and fundamental freedoms even if it meant overriding popular sentiment. The SC has been proactive in attempting to make constitutional rights a living reality even
for those who do not have the resources to seek redress of the judicial system, and to use these as a weapon to address executive
and legislative lethargy. Ambedkar, in his speech in the constituent
assembly on November 4, 1948, expostulated the features of the draft Constitution. He explained the relative strengths and weaknesses of the Presidential form of government and the
Westminster form of democracy. He said a democratic executive must satisfy two conditions — it must be a stable executive
and it must be a responsible executive. The presidential forms impart greater stability but lesser responsibility as the
executive isn’t dependent for its existence on a majority in Congress. The British system imparts greater responsibility
because of an executive dependent on Parliament for its existence, but this is at times at the cost of stability. It isn’t that the former is unaccountable — it’s the degree of accountability and its pervasiveness that differs in the two systems.
By this touchstone, Indian democracy is clearly work in progress. The lack of stability in government inherent in the Westminster system has taken its toll — coalition politics has seen national interest being sacrificed for political stability — the need for consensus has been seen to constrain ambitious economic measures.Constitutional morality is another area which is shown
up in grey light.Some areas of dismal failure are criminalisation
of politics, radicalisation and intolerance, populist measures that
fester the caste divide, and, most of allegregious, corruption. We replace governments every five years, unfortunately
each government uses the same red beacons to torment the common man.And when all else fails, we blame the
Constitution. Amendments to the Constitution have been made designed to emasculate the courts and make our fundamental
freedoms subject to the whim and caprice of those in power, on the excuse that it was the fundamental rights that prevented removal of poverty.Such attempts are now dust on the shelves of history. No government in present times would dare tinker with the basic values enshrined in the Constitution. In a broadcast on the Cabinet Mission plan in 1946, Lord Wavell had in prophetic
words said “… No country and no form of government can work satisfactorily without goodwill; with good will and determination to succeed even an apparently illogical arrangement can be made
to work....” Our Constitution is truly sublime – if there have been any failings we have only ourselves to blame.
Harish Salve is former solicitor general of India
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
How we codified what India stands for
WHEN DID THE PROCESS OF DRAFTING INDIA’S CONSTITUTION BEGIN?
In 1934 Indian leaders demanded a constituent assembly to draft a Constitution reflecting the ideals of an independent India,
the process began more than a decade later. The constituent assembly first met on December 9, 1946 in the Central Hall of
Parliament, then called Constitution Hall; more than 200 representatives attended, including nine women. Sachchidananda
Sinha was elected temporary chairman, to be soon replaced by Rajendra Prasad.
How was the assembly constituted? Constituent Assembly
members were chosen mainly through indirect election
by provincial assemblies, as per Cabinet Mission recommendations. 292 members were elected through provincial
assemblies, 93 represented princely states and four represented chief commissioners’ provinces, including the Northwest Frontier
Province, Balochistan, Coorg, Ajmer-Merwara, Andaman
and Nicobar. Total membership: 389. How did it function?
On December 13, 1946, Nehru moved the ‘Objectives
Resolution’ stating the assembly’s declaration proclaiming
India an independent sovereign republic. It resolved to draw the operational characteristics of government in independent India.
Soon after Mountbatten’s partition plan was declared
on June 3, 1947, a separate constituent assembly
was set up for Pakistan, reducing the Indian body’s
members to 299. Before Independence, legislation was
through the Central Legislative Assembly. On August 14,
1947 midnight, this was replaced by the constituent
assembly. It had 17 committees to discuss all aspects of
the new democracy. How often has the Constitution been
amended?The Constitution has been amended
100 times, making it the world’s most amended statute. The
first amendment came in 1951, a year after the Constitution
came into effect. The last one became effective this
May to make it possible for the India-Bangladesh land boundary
agreement to be implemented.The Constitution framers felt the process of amending it should be neither too easy, which would defeat the very purpose of having a Constitution, nor too difficult,
which would make it impossible for the document to keep
up with changing social values. For amending the Constitution,
a Bill can be introduced.in either House, but must win support of a majority of the total membership of each House (including vacancies,if any) and two-thirds of those present and voting (including“ayes” and “nays”, excluding those abstaining)
in each House. If the Bill fails to pass this test in one House, no joint sitting of Houses can be used to get it passed. Where the
proposed amendment impinges on the power of the states,
it must be ratified by at least half the state legislatures.
How long did it take to draft the Constitution? It took two years, 11
months and 17 days to compile the world’s longest national statute. The constituent assembly held 11 sessions over 165 days. On August 29, 1947,it set up a drafting committee under Ambedkar.
The constitution was adopted on November 26,1949. It came into force on January 26, 1950. That day the assembly became the provisional Parliament of India. This date was chosen to honour the
“purna swaraj” declaration of 1930
Which are the important amendments?
Some amendments have been significant. The first amendment in 1951 introduced Schedule 9 to protect laws that are on the face of it contrary to constitutionally guaranteed fundamental rights from judicial review. For example, a law allowing the state to forcibly acquire land for public good would seem to violate the right to
property, but placing it in Schedule 9 (as the 17th amendment
of 1964 did) was to put it beyond the reach of the courts. In 2007, the SC ruled that even laws under Schedule 9 are open to judicial review, if they violate the basic structure of the Constitution.
The Seventh Amendment of 1956 was to enable creation
of linguistic states and of UTs while abolishing the earlier classification of Class A, B, C and D states.The 39th and 42nd amendments passed during Emergency in the mid-70s were
controversial. The 39th placed restrictions on judicial scrutiny of the PM and the 42nd curtailed fundamental rights while introducing
the concept of fundamental duties. It added the words secular and socialist to the preamble that defines the republic’s nature.
The 43rd and 44th amendments passed after Emergency
reversed some of the excesses. Rajiv Gandhi’s tenure saw some crucial changes.The 52nd amendment of 1985 was to introduce an
anti-defection bill while the 61st in 1989 reduced voting age to 18 from 21. The 73rd and 74th amendments allowed creation of a third tier of government through local bodies in rural and urban areas. The 86th amendment of 2002 conferred the right to education.
coutesy - The Times of India 27 November 2015.
#constitution of #India
No comments:
Post a Comment