The country's call of agony was answered after the British had ceded its colonial supremacy and granted independence. November 26, 2019 marks the 70th year of the completion of framing the Indian constitution. The constitution has been amended 124 times till date while three of the constitutional amendment bills are still in abeyance and the Kashmir special status which was bestowed by Article 370 has been retreated. Travelling through the timeline of the Constitution, 132 state governments have been dissolved by the central government by section 356.
In 1999, when Adalpihari Vajpayee was the Prime Minister, the 50th anniversary of the Constitutional acceptance was commemorated .The Constituent Assembly thus re printed the original version and issued it at the event. The signature of the members of the Constitutional Council was presented in the original copy and it is a cachet that the copy had a signature in Tamil, by Mr MC Veerabaghu
Former President Neelam Sanjiva Reddy, former chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, NT Rama Rao, various statesmen and scholars have broached about the periodical constitutional amendment. As the President of the Republic, Neelam Sanjiva Reddy affirmed in his Independent statement that the time has come for necessary constitutional changes which has to be brought in with the review of past ordeals and obstacles that we have gone through.
Dr B.R. Ambedkar, who drafted the Constitution, said that amendments could be instituted to solve the shortcomings of the people. Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer, has said that it was futile in being conservative regarding making amendments in the constitution It’s the need of the hour to bring amendments to the existing constitution or to create a new constitution which would adapt the current scenario of the Indian state.
The country's constitutional functions must be addressed to discourse issues such as corruption, unstable governance and economic disruption. It is the right of each citizen to discern about the functioning of the state. The Lok Sabha and assembly constituencies have not been modified in accordance with the population outburst of the nation, post independence. We are propelled to a position to address and reform the electoral norms and debate over proportional representation. Reservations in state electoral norms must be made consistent throughout the country as in Australia.
India is bundled up with issues like youth unemployment, rising prices, sluggishness in the welfare of the state, various national issues and terrorism. In such a milieu, the ideology of presidential rule and the retaining of democratic rule should be discussed. The nation, debates about the basic institutions of India to which the answer is the Indian Constitution.
It must be clearly proclaimed in the Constitution that India is a federal or federated unitary entity. It must be articulated whether the Indian Constitution is resilient or inflexible. The constitution does not specify how the court can regulate the guiding principles of the state. Political law should serve as a guide for central and state relations and for resolving the river water problems between the states.
The dissolution of state governments exerting Article 356 of the Constitution requires a healthy debate. Although the President of the Republic of India has the power to officiate the decision, on the removal of the Prime Minister and dissolving of the Parliament, he/she is just a designatory authority without complete authority. The constitution does not shed light on the relationship between the Prime Minister and the President of India. This engendered many contretemps in the past between Former Prime minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Dr Rajendra Prasad, the first President of India. A disaccord can be viewed between the judicial wing and parliament also. Recently comments and criticisms over NitiAayok were also raised
While in prison, George Fernandes and Simranjit Singh Mann contested in the election and were elected as a Member of Parliament but inmates are not likely to vote in the elections. Minority benefits should be contrived practically and not by mere written averments. True secularism prevails in the country where people stand united for each other.
There are many ambiguities in our existing constitution. The political charter, which is the bloodstream of a country, should serve as the forerunner for the functioning of the country. The members of the Constituent Assembly, which was structured in 1946, were not elected by all the citizens and were elected to the Political Convention Board based on the votes of a certain elite and educated people of India. Therefore, the present Indian constitutional law is not a reflection of the diversified united Indians.
Certitude is that more than 124 amendments have been modelled for the past 70 years is due to some ambiguities in Indian constitution. Almost 210 years since the creation of the US Constitution, so far (since 1789) only 27 amendments have been contrived.
We also need to ponder over the history of our constitution. The Constituent Assembly is constituted by 296 members who were elected by the Central and State Legislatures. Dr B.R.Ambedkar was not present at the launch. East Bengal-based Yogendranath Mandal left Ambedkar at the last minute. Jawaharlal Nehru, C Rajagopalachari, Rajendra Prasad, SardarVallabhbhai Patel, Sandeep Kumar Patel, Dr Ambedkar, MaulanaAbul Kalam Azad, Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, NaliniRanjan Ghosh, and Balwant Singh Mehta were prominent legislators. There were more than 30 members of the oppressed classes. Frank Anthony represented the Anglo-Indian community. HB Modi represented the Parsi people. As head of the minority group, Ferentra Umar Mukherjee was the representative of all Christians. Ari BahadurKurung represented the Gurkha community. Leaders such as Allady Krishnaswamy Iyer, BR Ambedkar, Benegal Nursing Rao and Munshi, Ganesh Maulankar were the legislators. Sarojini Naidu, Hansa Mehta, Durgabai Deshmukh, Rajkumari Amrit Kaur and Vijayalakshmi Pandit were important female members. Some were reluctant to appoint Kamalabai Chattopadhyay in the committee. Dr.Sachidanandan Sinha was the first President of the Constitutional Council. Later, Rajendra Prasad was elected as the legislative leader. Members of the Constitutional Assembly met for the first time on December 9, 1946.
On August 29, 1947, the Constitutional Council passed a resolution. Accordingly, a seven-member Constitutional Drafting Committee was devised under the leadership of BR Ambedkar to write the Constitution of India.
The committee proffered its report on February 21, 1948. The report, mooted to the Constituent Assembly on November 4, was completed and gave credence on November 26, 1949 by Rajendra Prasad, President of the Constitutional Council. Rajendra Prasad was elected as the first President of Independent India at the last session of the Constitutional Council on January 24. At the National Congress of Indian Congress held in Lahore on January 26, 1930, it was manifested to dedicate ourselves to the Constitution of India by proclaiming it a Republic Day for India. Accordingly, the Constituent Assembly decided to accept January 26 as the Republic Day of India.
On the same day, the Constitution of India came into force on the Republic Day. Notably, countries such as the United States, France and Germany operated under the philosophy of republicanism. The first Republic in history was created in Italy. Democracy was created in Greece. Britain, Israel and New Zealand have no written constitutional mandate like ours. Parliamentary democracy is characterized by tradition and customs.
The interrogation here is, Is India a democratic country? or a republic country? There is no explanatory reasoning. Similarly, states, such as Australia, Canada, Germany and Switzerland, are centred around the concept of federal government. But there is no clear view of federalism.
Is the need to give political retirees the unnecessary position of governor,sounds redundant ? The various puzzlement in our political charters can be long listed. The reality is that there are so many sides and sections of our Constitution, that there is no way to solve the problems in the country.
Wordsworth says,there must be a vacuum between the old and the new to filled by the spirituality or by nature. There are no conditions in India where it can be furnished naturally. There has to be a strong political charter that can cater the aspirations of all people of different nationalities, languages and cultures.
The Constitution of India has more pages and sections in the world. Its weight is about 1.5 kg. The weight of the US Constitution is 0.600 grams. The US Constitution has clear guidelines for that country, albeit with brief strings and sides. The Constitution of India is created following the traditions of the UK and the Charters of the United States, Australia and France. Every political charter is created only after a revolution or struggle. The Indian constitution is engendered on the principle of unity in the plurality of the struggle for liberation. But political charter should serve as an instrument that binds all languages, races, and knits cultures together as a whole.
The Constitution of the State should ensure that the attitude of the Central Government should be free of the biased attitude. It needs to be looked after without social inequality. Our political charter should reflect the problems of India, the culture and the needs of the people. It should reflect the aspirations of the people.
The conventions and customs of the British Constituent Assembly and irrelevant norms from the Constituent Assembly in Canada, France, Australia and Ireland were incorporated here .
Former Lok Sabha Secretary Subhash Kashyap says, "We need to know our culture and our needs to form our own political charter rather than using the constitution of other countries." Political law is created to enrich mankind, not a mere code of regulations to form the government on a a democratic basis. We need to realize that the constitution must be a sacred lifeline of the country
Spokesperson, DMK
Associate editor, KathaiSoli Podhigai,Porunyai,Karisal
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