A milestone, the 50th anniversary of the Constitution of our Republic. Third time’s a charm, as they say, what with having been through two earlier constitutions before settling down to our incumbent one in 1973. Next door, in India, they got this particular problem out of the way a mere three years after independence and have stuck with it till now. Yes, they had some close calls along the way, with Indira Gandhi’s Emergency in 1975, which almost led to a cancellation of the scheduled 1977 elections, till better sense prevailed and a democratic India moved forward. To now, where the very Nehruvian-Amberkarian nature of the way the Indian state has functioned so far, is at risk. It is that constitution of 1950 that has stood up like a bulwark against fascist tendencies, left or right, socially liberal or conservative, secular or Hinduvadi fundamentalist.
This side of the Radcliffe, we realised, much later than the Indians did, that perhaps the parliamentary form of government is the best way to govern a polity as diverse as ours. But, alas, even this constitution hasn’t been adhered to in the years after it was promulgated. It has been suspended thrice, the last two times by one dictator. And it has been amended by rubber stamp governments of dictators who weren’t all too bothered with democratic niceties.
It is a comment on our nature as Argumentative Indians, to borrow a term from Amartya Sen, that even military dictators saw that they couldn’t possibly have declared an indefinite, naked military rule in the country. All such takeovers were always prefaced by a performative, loudly stated intention to bring in ‘real democracy.’ But in the last two military takeovers, even the ‘73 constitution wasn’t abrogated, what to speak of the idea of democracy itself. That alone is a comment on the lasting power of that document.
The 50th anniversary comes at a time of constitutional crisis in the country, including, but not limited to, the role of the judiciary itself. The conspicuous presence of one Justice of the SC at the Golden Jubilee event at the NA had the commentariat on fire yesterday.
Both the government and the opposition need to look at the Constitution for the two pressing issues facing our hapless Republic: the necessity of procedural democracy – within the timeframe specified – and the supremacy of the parliament – not the judiciary – in the way our polity has to be governed. One needs to look at the former, and the other needs to look at the latter.
