BJP shouldn’t be apologetic about amending the Constitution.
It should learn from Congress
It should learn from Congress
It is ironical that the Congress, which was at the vanguard of the freedom movement and Constitution-making, later became the party which mutilated the Constitution and robbed it of its founding principles
On November 26, Parliament observed the Constitution Day and leaders of various political parties hailed the Republic’s founding fathers for their diligence and foresight while drafting the country’s Constitution.
Since we happen to be the world’s largest democracy and also the most diverse society, the success of the democratic process over the last six decades is certainly a matter of pride for every Indian citizen. This is the most extraordinary human experiment in the world because nowhere else can one find democracy co-existing with such poverty and diversity.
Therefore, despite all their faults and inadequacies, all stake-holders in the democratic process deserve congratulations and they include the people, their representatives and all the political parties.
Among political parties, the Congress takes pride in the fact that it led the freedom movement and played a key role in Constitution-making. While speaking in the Lok Sabha, Congress president Sonia Gandhi drew attention to this fact and said the history of our Constitution “is inextricably linked with that of the freedom movement and therefore of the Congress”. This is indeed true and this very fact imposes a special responsibility on India’s oldest party to uphold the highest values embedded in our Constitution.
The Congress president also said the Constitution had seen over a hundred amendments, “a number of them in response to changing circumstances and emerging challenges”. This is also true, though not all amendments would stand the scrutiny of even those who having only a nodding acquaintance with the core principles enshrined in democratic constitutions.
An unfortunate example of this would be the 39th Amendment, which nullified the June 1975 verdict of the Allahabad High Court which had found Prime Minister Indira Gandhi guilty of corrupt electoral practice.
This amendment was hustled through the two Houses of Parliament and State Assemblies in order to prohibit the courts from entertaining election petitions against the Prime Minister. In gross violation of parliamentary rules, it was introduced and passed in the Lok Sabha on August 7, 1975 and again introduced and passed in the Rajya Sabha on the very next day. Then a miracle happened! As many as 17 State Assemblies, summoned on Saturday, August 9 ratified this amendment and an amenable President gave his assent on Sunday, August 10 and the ever-obliging civil servants of those days opened offices that very Sunday to notify the amendment.
Why this break-neck speed, you may ask? Because the Supreme Court was to hear Indira Gandhi’s petition on August 11 and the Government’s lawyers had to tell the court that the Constitution stood amended and Parliament had decreed that election petitions against the Prime Minister were henceforth out-of-bounds for it!
In the course of her speech, Ms Gandhi quoted BR Ambedkar as having said: “However good a Constitution may be, it is sure to turn out bad because those who are called to work it happen to be a bad lot………….” Ms Gandhi also said the ideals and principles that are embedded in our Constitution and that have inspired us for decades are now under assault. What we have witnessed these past few months particularly are a complete negation of what our Constitution stands for and guarantees”.
If we reflect over the events during the dreaded Emergency in 1975-1977, when the Congress imposed a dictatorship in the country and flung the core values of our Constitution out of the window, we realise how true Ambedkar was. It will also help us get a correct gauge of current political disturbances if we juxtapose the present debate on the so-called intolerance with the horrendous assault on our democratic system 40 years ago.
The 39 Amendment was just for starters. It put the then Prime Minister above the law and nullified Article 14 which guaranteed equality before the law to all citizens. But the final nail in the coffin was the 42 Amendment which clipped the wings of the judiciary, removed brick-by-brick, the foundations on which the document stood and did such violence to the basic principles enshrined in it that the Constitution eventually became a poor caricature of what Ambedkar and his colleagues had given us.
The 42 Amendment introduced two provisions which can only be described as reprehensible. First, it abolished the need for quorum in Parliament and the State Legislatures. The Constitution stipulates that at least 10 per cent of the members must be present in the Houses to transact business. This was done away with, thus making it possible for just a handful of Congress MPs to sit late in Parliament and make laws for the country. Fortunately, the Janata Party, which defeated the Congress in the 1977 Lok Sabha election, corrected the mischief and restored the Constitution to its original, pristine glory.
The other provision, which should make any democrat hang his head in shame, was that which empowered the President to amend the Constitution through an executive order! As anyone with a nodding acquaintance with the Constitution is aware, it is very difficult to amend the Constitution because the Government of the day cannot even change a full stop or a comma in it without securing the support of two-thirds of the members in each House of Parliament.
Further, if the amendment involves the rights of the States, the Assemblies of at least one half of the States will have to ratify the amendment. Only then can the amendment be made. The Congress found this to be too much of a rigmarole and authorised the President to “adapt or modify the provision (in the Constitution) to remove the difficulty” through an executive order.
Apart from the Indian President during the Emergency, the only other heads of state to have had the power to amend their constitutions through executive order were Hitler and Mussolini!
The Congress president concluded her speech on the Constitution by saying “it is to the protection and advancement of constitutional processes that we must re-dedicate ourselves”.
It is indeed an irony that the Congress, which was at the vanguard of the freedom movement and Constitution-making, later became the party which mutilated the Constitution and robbed it of its founding principles like equality before law, right to life and liberty and fundamental rights including the right to freedom of expression.
Therefore, every citizen must feel gratified that this party is now committed to advancement of “constitutional processes”. This augurs well for our democratic well-being.
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