India celebrates its Constitution Day on 26 November. The Constituent Assembly adopted the Constitution of India on 26 November 1949. The Constitution came into effect on 26 January 1950.
The basic premise of the Constitution is ‘We the People of India.’ The people of the nation are supreme. In their name the laws are made. For their safety and security the laws are to be implemented. No single person, be he the head of the nation or the head of the ruling dispensation, can arrogate to himself power to tamper with the Constitutional provisions nor tilt them to his advantage. No party in power can make anti-people laws.
Today, the multi-billion dollar question is, can the nation afford to let a man or a party in power to run amok with whims and fancies to deny the people of the nation Constitutional privileges and provisions? When sinister forces are afoot to give predominance to fundamentalism, unscientific thinking and myths over the Constitutional provisions, sensible citizens need to stand up, speak up and resist such attempts.
Laws are made for all people of the nation. When self-styled politicians, awash with sectarian ideology, legislate anti-people laws in order to deny justice to minority groups and weaker sections, it is time to wake up.
When fundamental rights are laid out in the Constitution as sacrosanct provisions to ensure fundamental freedoms as fundamental rights, how can we the nation afford to let fundamentalist and communal forces to trample over them with impunity? Is freedom of speech becoming causality? Is freedom to worship according to one’s religious belief anathema? If the fundamental right to life includes also the right to your choice of food, how can anyone dictate to you what to eat and what not to eat? Is not your right to privacy denied to you when anti-social elements invade your kitchen to inspect what you cook or what you store? When such elements are flexing their muscle with the blessing of the local politicians or of the ruling dispensation, one smells a rat.
Time to assert our Constitutionally-given guarantees of fundamental freedoms and provisions of justice and fair play. The courts of the nation are the guarantors of the Conditional laws and provisions. Let no court abdicate this responsibility. Nor should it tilt the balance of justice in favour of the rich and the mighty.
A thought-provoking statement has been made by a citizen: Should there not be a national Court of Justice, apart from the Apex Court? Such a Court should only try erring politicians or those who criminalise politics and thwart justice, those who lie to the nation, those who sell the nation’s assets for a farthing to private sector or to foreign investments, and those who subvert the constitution? No party should be exempted from facing the moment of truth. Let all be answerable to ‘We the people of India!’