The biggest achievement after independence was the adoption of the Constitution amidst the pangs of partition and giving to the country a political, social and economic document towards its future. It was certainly a formidable task for drawing up a Constitution for a country as diverse as ours. The framers of the Constitution were keen on economic progress of the country and equitable distribution of resources along with democracy liberty and freedoms to the citizens.
As we celebrate 75 years of the Republic, it is important to take stock of some of the finest principles that helped survival of our country as a democracy while constitutions in most countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America failed the test of time. Our Constitution framers were men of vision, scholarship who shunned narrow mindedness and parochial thoughts. Babasaheb and Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru were the guiding stars who had clear understanding of world history.
The pangs of partition brought political realism and a moderate attitude among the members of the constituent assembly even while dealing with very contentious issues like minority rights, national or official language, right to property as a fundamental right as special provisions for under-privileged classes.
The Indian society was not a homogenous one with different religions, languages and regions and section of people comparably weaker than others- economically, socially and culturally. This was the focus point of the Constitution which enjoined upon the state to ameliorate the lot of the weaker section and to bring in a sense of security among the minorities. The foresight of Ambedkar and Nehru can be gauged from their utterances.
Dr Ambedkar said “…one of that minorities are an explosive force which, if it erupts, can blow up the whole fabric of the state….. In the history of negotiations of preventing partition of Ireland, Redmond said to Carson, ‘Ask for any safeguard you like for the protestant minority but let us have a United Ireland’. Carson’s reply was ‘Damn your safeguards, we don’t want to be ruled by you’. No minority in India has taken this stand. They have loyally accepted the rule of the majority which is basically a communal majority and not a political majority. It is for the majority to realise its duty not to discriminate against minorities…”
Dr Babasaheb said, “However much you may deny powers to the Centre, it is difficult to prevent it from becoming strong. Conditions in the modern world are such that centralisation of powers is inevitable. One has only to consider the growth of Federal government of U.S.A….”
English continues to be used for administration due to a powerful intervention of Pandit Nehru who said, “However good and important English may be, we cannot tolerate that there should be an English knowing elite and a large mass of our people not knowing English. Therefore, we must have our language…”.
The social and economic goals were to end poverty, ignorance, diseases and inequality of opportunity. What the Constitution set up to achieve was distributive justice so as to bring about the distribution of assets among the community, so as to sub-serve the common good.
Though for four decades after independence, the country followed socialistic pattern of economy with the Centre and many states acquiring land from landlords for public purpose. The takeover of banks via nationalisation was a step in that direction. The rationale behind these moves was to reduce inequality and redistribution of land amongst the poor who constituted a large majority. However, the remedy turned out worse than the disease, and measures like estate duty, wealth tax generated income less than the cost of administration, due to concealment of wealth and income.
The new economic reforms of the nineties took the country towards the path of globalisation and privatisation. That market driven economy brought in resources for the government and helped lift a section out of poverty. We are one of the fastest-growing economies in the world but also one of the most unequal countries with the richest cornering huge part of the wealth Top 10% of the India’s population hold 77% of the total national. The number of billionaires has increased with their fortune increasing 10 times over a decade and their total wealth higher than the entire union budget.
Elections have become the biggest USP of our country. Slowly and steadily elections seem to be replacing our democracy. Democracy is having a free fall, as institutions like a functioning Parliament, an independent media and robust civil services show signs of collapse and the two wings (Election Commission and the Apex Court) that were seen as the last bastions when we celebrated 50 years of republic, are no longer seen as robust and they were international rating agencies have dubbed our country as ‘flawed democracy’ or ‘electoral autocracy’. Independence of the country and ushering in of the Republic has not brought an era of honesty and integrity in our society. That’s our greatest failure. The growth of the country is inextricably mixed up with the institutions of democracy and the manner in which they function shall decide the future of our democracy.
Irrespective of the shortcomings, we have a lot to celebrate. Our Constitution lasted 75 years and the ‘scare of the Constitution being in danger’ became a talking point in the last elections when our neighbouring countries are replacing their Constitution repeatedly, ours stood the test of time.
(Cleofato Almeida Coutinho is a senior counsel and political
commentator .)
