Whose Constitution is it anyway

so whose constitution is it anyway

after centuries of being a colony

which was nothing but a glorified form

of slavery

a moment arrived in the life of our

young

yet ancient civilization when we could

say for the first time ever

loud and clear we the people

these three words are as declaratory as

patriotic and

as emotional as they come for these

three words

to be manifested into reality countless

men and women over the centuries have

sacrificed their loved ones

their ambitions their belongings their

careers even their lives

when these words are read or spoken

there is an unwritten unset emotion

an emotion of the pain of the

humiliation

over the years gone by a hope for the

future

a redemption of the past it is an

attempt to heal the wounds of a

civilization a

proud ancient civilization which boasted

of being the land of the vedas

a land of science and mathematics a land

famed as sonic which was impoverished

so much so that it ended up being a

jewel but it’s someone else’s crown

the constitution of india for most of us

indians my friends

is a thick law book with words

that most of us cannot understand cannot

comprehend

sometimes cannot even pronounce either

this book adorns a bookshelf of the

intellectuals or is seen in the

courtrooms or in the offices of us

lawyers

it has nothing to do with how most

indians

understand and how they feel

or know what it means today or meant for

the teeming millions

at the dawn of india becoming a republic

for a start i argue most categorically

that the constitution is not merely a

book and

certainly not merely a law book

yes i agree it is written in a legal

language

yes it was written by the constituent

assembly which had its fair share of

lawyers

and yes we don’t discuss it over our

evening team

but it is and it will remain

a social document written by us

for us whether we believe it or not

the premise of this talk is that in the

next few minutes i will give you a

glimpse of what this constitution holds

for

each one of us i will try and satisfy

each one of you

that this so-called law book is a

reflection of the dreams and aspirations

of the people of india

and that the constitution and every word

written

in it reflects the emotion which makes

india what it

is the emotion of we

the people at the outset let me share

with you an interesting piece of

statistic

as for the data shared by the election

commission of india just before the 2019

lok sabha general election the total

number of registered voters in india

is 900 million which is more than the

collective population of the continents

of europe and australia

another rather shocking piece of

statistics revealed in the census data

of 2011

is that of these 90 crore voters a huge

majority have never ever seen inside of

a college or university

i can reasonably assure you that in the

proportional terms

these stats were not any more

encouraging at the dawn of india

becoming a democratic republic in 1950

than what they are today so if a

churchill would say

india shall be ruled by goons etc based

on statistics

i wouldn’t be surprised and i wouldn’t

be surprised if a

legal book with all the logic and reason

and gray matter thrown behind every word

would have categorically provided

that only the educated amongst us only

they informed amongst us

and only a limited number amongst us

would be able to vote and exercise their

choice by voting in every election

and choose which government must rule us

after all running a nation cannot be

entrusted to an emotional uninformed

decision of the teeming millions

then comes along our constituent

assembly

our emphasis supply our constituent

assembly comes along

our framers of the constitution our own

dr baba cyber media

would decide that every

indian regardless of race religion cash

gender will have the power and the right

to choose

his or her government in a free fair

and timely election every indian will

decide who will run the largest

democracy in the world

every indian will be provided universal

adult suffrage by article 326

of the constitution of india

what but why out came the naysayers

and our founding fathers said why not

what

kind of a sovereign country will that be

which cannot rely

upon and trust the wisdom of the masses

to be able to choose the government

no matter what their level of education

or no matter what the extent of their

information be

a population a nation

an ancient civilization which was

systematically made to lose its

self-respect

and confidence over the years of

colonization deserves

to be respected for its cumulative

wisdom

deserves to be given the responsibility

to bear upon itself the

herculean task of choosing who will run

this massive

democracy of india and more importantly

deserves to be empowered to be able to

see

in their own eyes the gleaming

reflection of a truly

sovereign country remember it is

we the people okay

you might say so we have settled our

scores for the foreign rule

we have claimed our innate right to

choose our own quality we have resolved

to live in the spirit of a sovereign

country

but that’s not the end one might argue

we have many more bones to pick amongst

each other

many more chips on our shoulders related

to the past many more unsettled internal

disputes within

ourselves what about those what does the

constitution offer as a remedy to these

take for instance the perennial issue of

religion and the multitude of disputes

germinated from

and related to it the world and

especially india

has faced more problems more

factionalism

and more disturbances from the

misinterpretation and misuse of religion

than any other conceivable issue

thou shalt not worry said the founding

fathers of our constitution

as a panacea we offer you

secularism

a palpable pause i might say i know you

must be rolling back your eyes

not again you might say yes i know and i

agree

this word secularism is a storm in a tea

cup so to say

in the words of nero in the constituent

assembly and i quote

now i use the words secular democracy

and many others use these words

but sometimes i have the feeling that

these words are used today

too much and by people who do not

understand their significance unquote

but then that is precisely my point

said our doctor baker the word has so

many meanings that are rather not used

at

all in the constitution i’d rather

describe it for you

i will explain the indian brand of

secularism which is

a deviation a far far

long deviation from the western

definition of the word secular

in the west a concept which divorces the

state from the religion

in simple words in the west if the

religion closes it though the state

cannot even peep inside and intervene

no matter what by the way this exclusion

of the state and the religion is

primarily the root of the many problems

and the foggy definition

surrounding this world secular india

shall be secular in spirit it is the

essential character of india to be

secular

the gandhian principle of sarva dharma

runs in our veins we promise to all our

citizens liberty of belief

faith and worship proclaims loud and

clear the preamble of our constitution

we are secular in spirit

that is our brand of secularism our

constitution

lives and breathes secularism you have

the liberty of belief

faith and worship what’s more the

fundamental rights of article 25 26 27

and 28 ensure that these are not

merely player words but guaranteed

legally

enforceable rights which cannot be

violated cannot be abridged

and cannot be contrary so this country

with more religious groups and subgroups

than the combined total of the rest of

the world

remains the republic of india

not a theocratic state but the republic

of india full of belief

faith and worship in the same way

our constitution guarantees equality

before the law

and equal protection of laws in article

it also resolves to rid the society of

the shameful practice of untouchability

by

not only abolishing it but making it a

punishable offense so practice it

as per article 17. article 18 of the

constitution ensures equality by

providing that you cannot be a prince

a raja or nawab or nizam or hold any

other dynastic title

but you can only be granted a title by

the state which you earned with your

merit

your effort or your gallantry my friends

i can go on and on and on whether it is

for the women of a nation

who are marginalized over the centuries

by discrimination in our society

or the millions of workers who were

forced to be bonded and made to work

without money for the toll and

sweat or for the children who are abused

as cheap labor

a constitution protects and cares for

each one of them

and ensures that they are neither

forgotten

not left to be exploited the

constitution directs the state

through directive principles of state

policy that the

mantra underlying the laws made by the

state

and the underlying policies of the

government shall be one

and one only that is the welfare of the

people

india shall be a welfare state proclaims

our constitution and backing these

promises behind these words and the

spirit is the might

of a powerful and independent judiciary

we shall ensure that the constitutional

principles we followed

and its promises be enforced at all

times failing which

the courts will interfere

and declare anything against the

constitution

as null and y over the years we have

seen countless soldiers of law fighting

and guarding the promise against all

odds

whether it was the indomitable nani

palkiwala who

roared in the supreme court defending

the basic structure doctrine or an m.c

mehta who through numerous public

interest litigation paved the way for

environmental reforms in a way

and a scale which was unprecedented

or for that matter a young lady shreya

singal

who fought for and won the battle to

ensure freedom of speech and

expression against ambiguous laws

the fire my friends kindles

the pursuit is still on the caravan

continues but is it all rainbow and

sunshine

certainly not there are many miles of

barren and scorching earth

between us and the promised land dreamt

in the constitution

there are shattered pieces of

constitution itself lying

around us going to the several

amendments which were

so to say not on the same page with the

original vision of our founding fathers

there have been insertions and deletions

in our constitution which threaten the

very subtlety and nuances

of this grand creation the insertion of

the word

secular expressly in a preamble in 1976

is a case in the point there have been

ignored and ischemic parts of the

constitution

like the enforcement of the uniform

civil code which remains still date

for the lack of a better word an

unfulfilled dream

there are many instances of pro-beating

and arm twisting the constitutional

safeguards like the imposition of

national emergency

in 1975 etc etc

etc yes

yes we are lagging far behind in the

race to achieve the dream of the utopian

world which we started out with

yes for many of us the constitution

has become a thick law

book a thick flow book

which is either cited in the courts or

memorized for an exam or even worse used

as a punch line in politics

sad but true but we won’t give up

and we cannot give up

we have promises to keep friends beware

the yesteryears shall question us for

all the sacrifices they were witness to

and hold us accountable for each one of

them i am sure that we will ensure that

those dreams of

india that is bharat were not figments

of imagination

those sacrifices made were not made in

vain

and that the faith that the founding

fathers vested in us

was not misplaced this will be our small

tribute to the numerous sacrifices that

went into the hallowed foundations of a

sovereign india

the first step in this direction is to

own the responsibility to own the

constitution

to make it my constitution our

constitution

and to own that promise that the

founding fathers made

when they said loud and clear

we the people thank you