On Constitution Day, Congress must remember its own legacy of undermining it

For a “book” that is an nonfiction of religion for the democratically-spirited radical of India to beryllium reduced to a plaything of authorities is not conscionable unfortunate but an outright anti-constitutional act. After all, it is not conscionable India’s leaders who participated successful drafting the Constitution. Over 53,000 citizens sat successful the visitors’ assemblage of the Constituent Assembly implicit astir 3 years and watched the debates held during the drafting of the Constitution.

Even arsenic Congress reportedly waves blank copies of the Constitution to the radical of the country, implicit the years erstwhile the enactment was successful power, it introduced implicit 80 amendments. While it is existent that each governments person to amend the Constitution successful accordance with the demands of changing times, demographics and aspirations of people, Congress is liable for trying to tinker with the basic structure of the document, restructuring adjacent the Preamble. It is Congress that suspended the Constitution during the acheronian days of Emergency. The past Congress authorities led by the precocious Indira Gandhi amended the Preamble. The 42nd Amendment provided for curtailment of cardinal rights.

In 1976, Justice H R Khanna was made to wage the terms for choosing to reason the suspension of civilian liberties. As a five-judge constitution seat heard the ADM Jabalpur vs Shivkant Shukla lawsuit and ruled that the close to idiosyncratic liberty tin beryllium suspended successful the involvement of the state, Justice Khanna wrote, “The Constitution and the laws of India bash not licence beingness and liberty to beryllium astatine the mercy of the implicit powerfulness of the Executive… What is astatine involvement is the regularisation of law.”

The authorities of the time extracted its “revenge” connected Justice Khanna by superseding him and appointing his inferior workfellow astatine the Supreme Court arsenic the Chief Justice of India successful 1977. Justice Khanna resigned soon after. On Constitution Day, we request to retrieve him for lasting up to support a papers Indians revere.

India’s Constitution is not conscionable a progressive policy/administrative document, but besides 1 that sets our objectives. Why should a federation develop? What should beryllium the intent of the executive’s actions? What should the objectives of the judiciary’s decisions be? As per the principles enshrined successful the Constitution, justice, social, economic, and political, arsenic good arsenic liberty of thought, expression, belief, faith, and worship for the radical of India. And so, portion the Constitution connected the 1 manus protects groups and their practices, it ensures idiosyncratic liberties are firmly guarded too.

The authorities guarantees extortion to groups to practise their religion and ways of beingness but besides ensures those wrong the radical who unrecorded otherwise are escaped to bash so. The Constitution is virtually for “one and all”.

As B R Ambedkar said, the Constitution is not a specified lawyers’ document, it is simply a conveyance of beingness and its tone is ever the tone of the age. The property that we unrecorded successful makes it adjacent much imperative to beryllium reminded of the halfway values of the Constitution, and that is wherefore successful 2015, the Narendra Modi-led authorities decided to observe November 26 and honour the memories of those who made it imaginable for India to person her ain Constitution. It is simply a time to reaffirm our religion and allegiance to the halfway values of the papers — an nonfiction of religion for us.

On Constitution Day, it is important to resoluteness that the Constitution should not beryllium a taxable of politics. If anything, protecting law principles should beryllium an inspiration for politics.

The writer is Union Cabinet Minister for Environment, Forest & Climate Change