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It’s Time to Implement the Forgotten Constitution of India for Liberty and Dignity
It’s Time to Implement the Forgotten Constitution of India for Liberty and Dignity
It’s Time to Implement the Forgotten Constitution of India for Liberty and Dignity
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It’s Time to Implement the Forgotten Constitution of India for Liberty and Dignity

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The highly regressive and continually deteriorating plight of our large populace is no secret. More than 100 crore of India's population exists under highly impoverished and wretched conditions. Forty percent of our country is infected with Maoism, Naxalism, Terrorism and Seditious activism. Consistent failures of our Legislature and Executive are no more acceptable. The basic objectives of our Constitution, ‘economic freedom’, ‘dignity’, ‘equal status and opportunity’ and ‘fraternity’ must now be fulfilled.
According to Agrawal this can be accomplished only by a responsible and accountable system of governance. According to him good governance is like a good mother who works hard for her living and rearing her children. The children also cling to her in affection because they know their mother was doing her best to taking care of them. The book attempts to find out that mother for the people of India.
Since our Judiciary is the custodian of the Constitution and responsible for its implementation, the book attempts to making the Judiciary realize of their basic obligations and implement the Constitution.
Elections every 5 years are a sacred process to elect worthy guardians and establish a responsible and accountable system of governance. But our present due process of elections is highly abusive and obnoxious and a self inflicting curse for the people of India due to luring the voters. Luring masks the performance of the Legislators and shifts their focus from constructive work to reliefs, handouts, dole-outs and freebees etc. also accusing, nagging and denouncing the rival parties and candidates. All such acts germinate into no responsibility and no accountability of our guardians and encourage incapable and dubious characters enter the politics.
Just and fair elections must take account of the actual developmental work carried out by the parties and candidates in the past and their future plans to accomplish the Basic Objectives of the Constitution. There is no other purpose of elections than this. For the first time in 2014 General Elections Narender Modi(then Prime Ministerial candidate) remained averse to dole-outs, quotas and reservations and talked of development in real terms. It is a step forward in desisting ‘vote bank politics.’
Agrawal also talks to stop criminalization of politics. For this to happen he proposes the Judiciary to debar a tainted candidate from contesting elections and so also a sitting Member of Parliament or State Assemblies until he is acquitted by the law. Presently the Parliament and State Assemblies have large numbers of such persons. It is not only a blemish on our Parliamentary system of democracy; it also acts as a horrendous retardant in the proper governance of the country. History of post independence era of 67 years is a witness of gradual dilapidation of India’s governing prudence and lack of fiduciary relationship with the people of India.
Agrawal also suggests to upgrade CAG (Comptroller and Auditor General) on the lines of a ‘third eye’ or ‘over view’ system similar to that of USA, to have a surveillance of the Legislators and the Executives on a real time basis to monitoring their activities and performance on real time and nipping the rising occurrences of scams and corruption in the system right in the bud and save precious time of CBI and Vigilance Commission in investigations and that of learned Judiciary in their adjudications.
Part III of the book with the concept of City Centres narrates how we can still place our country amongst the most prosperous and powerful nations in the world for the present and the posterity through a responsible and accountable system of governance by making optimum use of our resources.

LanguageEnglish
Publishershreymittal
Release dateAug 20, 2014
ISBN9788190164269
It’s Time to Implement the Forgotten Constitution of India for Liberty and Dignity

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    It’s Time to Implement the Forgotten Constitution of India for Liberty and Dignity - K.C. Agrawal

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    It’s Time to Implement

    the Forgotten

    Constitution

    for Liberty and Dignity

    K.C. Agrawal

    Anjuna Agrawal Singh

    84220.png

    It’s Time to Implement the Forgotten Constitution

    for Liberty and Dignity

    K.C. Agrawal

    Anjuna Agrawal Singh

    Published by Crusade India

    at Smashwords

    First Published in 2014

    A sequel of

    84189.jpg

    Knowledge Books Inc.

    D 136, Sector 36, Noida 0201 301

    Ph. 0120-2572246

    E-mail: komalcagrawal@gmail.com

    Website: www.indiainshambles.com

    Copyright © 2014 by K. C. Agrawal

    All rights reserved. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author/publisher.

    Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

    Acknowledgement

    Having received little support from within or without, the present work can be considered a work against odds, accompanied largely by disapprovals and jeers. But what I have narrated is the grim reality of our beloved nation and its large debilitated and famished populace; a conspicuous culmination of our usually malevolent and generally poor governance in absence of proper checks and balances and this harsh truth one would be compelled to accept.

    The credit or discredit of my work goes to our teeming, debilitated and suffering masses that would always be present in my subconscious mind and appear in my dreams. My wife would often shake me from my nightmare shrieks, usually of a sinking ship carrying us all.

    My endeavour now will be to reach out the message to the people of the land and our concerned guardians to first establishing a responsible and accountable system of governance, and then achieving an all round progress of the nation for bringing prosperity and happiness to our people following the guidelines and roadmaps provided by me in Part III of the book to one day transform India totally and place it amongst the most prosperous and powerful nations in the world for the present and the posterity.

    Author

    My special thanks go to

    Anjuna Agrawal Singh: Author’s Daughter, Educationist and Mentor

    B K Jha: Journalist

    Balraj S Malik: Advocate Supreme Court

    Bhagvanji Raiyani: Forum For Fast Justice

    Dhruv Arawal: CA, Lawyer and Educationist

    Jayendra Singh: Educationist

    Kamaljeet Singh Ahluwalia: Educationist and Motivator

    Kunal Chandra Agrawal: Practicing Advocate

    Madhu Agrawal: Wife of the Author

    Malini Nair: Publishing

    Padmini Smetacek: Editor

    Promod Chawla: Philanthropist and Mentor

    Ram Kumar Atri: Educationist and Motivator

    Thanks

    K.C. Agrawal

    Genesis

    It is possible for provisions of a written Constitution of government to be unconstitutional if they are inconsistent with the constitutions of nature or society. It is not ratification alone that makes a written Constitution of government legitimate, but that it must also be competently designed and applied. – O.A. Brownson¹

    Dear Friends,

    Think India and the image that immediately flashes the mind is that of chaos and poverty, with a few odd economic success stories shining like tinsels on tattered rags. Sixty six years of the current form of democracy has failed India’s poor millions who still languish in extreme poverty and sorrows of lives. Consistent shortage of water and electricity, creaking infrastructure, lack of job opportunities, galloping inflation and dwindling value of the rupee present a nightmarish scenario of our nation which haunts the common man.

    Since all these issues relate to the welfare of the people and cause gross human rights violations, they are justiciable and fall within the purview of the Judiciary to redress. United Nations’ various charters, treatises and human rights protections, promulgated from time to time, also make these submissions justiciable (Section 4.1). Chapter 7 of this book also demonstrates the justiciability of the Directive Principles of State Policy (DPSP) mentioned in Part IV of our Constitution.

    In the past 66 years, our Legislature and Executive have consistently failed to accomplish the basic objectives of the Constitution (Section 4.6(i)). These objectives were the sole purpose of our struggle for freedom. India’s independence in this respect has been a betrayal, particularly for the weaker sections of our country, for whom it was claimed, our founding fathers had struggled for freedom (citation: Resolution in the Central Assembly – Section 6.1).

    The Judiciary, the third-most powerful guardian of our nation, is also concerned about the nation and its impoverished masses. The author hopes the Judiciary will lend its ear to hear the sighs of sorrows and grief of its suffering masses and take cognizance of the consistent regression of the nation and the stark poverty that has besieged our debilitated masses. Perennial relief operations by successive governments to artificially salvage the situation have proved a failure. Such relief operations are human rights violations and cannot be a long-term solution for perennial problems (Section 1.3). In our case they have played havoc with the very people they were supposed to help.

    The rights of the people of India are protected by our Constitution and also various charters and treaties of the United Nations (UN) such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR, 1948), the International Covenant of Economic Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR, 1966) and the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR, 1966), etc. India is a signatory to all of them. The fulfilment of basic objectives as defined in the Constitution, namely economic freedom, dignity, equality of status, opportunity, and fraternity are our fundamental rights. Since they remain grossly unfulfilled by our guardians (the Legislature and political and civil Executive), the onus now shifts to our third most responsible guardian, the Judiciary, to discharge these obligations by establishing a responsible and accountable system of governance. This is the basic theme of the author’s present work. The Judiciary is within its bounds to do so. Today the number of the impoverished alone has risen to more than 100 crore which is three times that of India’s population at the time of Independence (33–34 crore, Section 2.5). According to the author, all the basic objectives are achievable through a responsible and accountable system of governance.

    For better clarity to the readers on human rights and implications of their violations, I have provided in Chapter 4 brief references to some vital human resource requirements as promulgated by the United Nations (UN) to its member countries. To augment the vital provisions, references of some relevant statutes of a few worthy constitutions of the world are also provided in Chapter 5. It is hoped the reader will comprehend them and derive the inference that I want to convey.

    Citation

    M. Ananthasayanam Ayyangar, member of the Constituent Assembly of India, and later Speaker of the Lok Sabha, during a debate on the subject, described Article 32 (Right to Constitutional Remedies) thus: "The Supreme Court, according to me, is the supreme guardian of the citizen’s rights in any democracy. I would even go further and say that it is the soul of democracy. The elected Executive, which comes into being for the time-being, is apt to abuse its powers, and therefore the Supreme Court must be there, strong and untrammelled by the day-to-day passions which may bring a set of people into power and also throw them out in a very short time. If the fundamental rights of the individual are left to the tender mercies of the government of the day, they cannot be called fundamental rights at all," and further that these and other rights must be carefully watched and for this purpose the Supreme Court has been vested with the supreme ultimate, jurisdiction. (Source: Discussion on 9 December, 1949 in the Constituent Assembly of India on the scheme, object and enactment of Article 32 of the Constitution).

    Note: Seemingly the learned member of the Constituent Assembly was alluding to the fulfilment of the provisions of Part IV of the Constitution [Directive Principles of State Policy (DPSP)] by natural means and avenues, to empower the people to earn their living naturally and not artificially through handouts, dole-outs, or gifts. And if the government fumbles, the Judiciary must be there to address the issue untrammelled.

    The present work aims to halt the consistent regression of the nation and to heal the heart-rending pathetic conditions of its perennially suffering debilitated masses. The former Chief Justice of India’s statement in this respect has enormous relevance (clippings 1 and 2): that the basic function of the Judiciary is to protect the rights of the people and all its actions must be directed to further this responsibility.

    The Honourable former Chief Justice of India further clarifies that before criticising the court, which serves as the whip hand of the people towards any wrong done by the State, other organs of governance must also make sure that their conduct is exemplary in order to establish a fiduciary relationship (Section 6.8 (vii)) so as to deserve the trust of the people. That in a democracy people are paramount and it is the inherent duty of the Executive, the Legislature and the Judiciary to perform meaningful roles in making the lives of the common man dignified and happy. (Also see clipping 3.)

    Clippings 62 tell the tale of consistent non-performance and little accountability of our governments and the consequent deteriorating plight of the nation. The woes of regression have pressed cruelly upon the debilitated people of our country. It is appalling on all fronts, so the concern of the learned Judiciary is indeed reassuring. A glimpse of the present Indian scenario is briefly narrated below:

    An Abundance of Poverty

    Despite the government’s trickery in demonstrating its efforts in alleviating poverty, in reality poverty is rising. The NSSO² has estimated it at about 66 percent* (64.47 percent rural and 66.7 percent urban) of our populace who live below the poverty line (clipping 73A). Poverty has jumped from 37.2 percent (Tendulkar Committee Report, clipping 12). In this situation, liberty and dignity for our people is only a hallucination. It is already the 67th year of our independence and the situation is clearly out of their hands. Any hope for this situation to ever improve under the present system of governance is living on false hopes and chasing a mirage.

    * The author’s original findings presented through Shaping India of our Dreams and Crusade India more than a decade ago had estimated the poverty level at 86 percent (including those living on or a little above the poverty line). Experts and the general audience had reservations in accepting this figure then. The author has been, however, proven right as by 2012 this figure had been officially authenticated.

    Dilapidating, Crumbling, and Dismaying Infrastructure

    –  The railways are ramshackle and lose about ` 16,000 crore annually, said Dinesh Trivedi, Railways Minister, in January 2012. Everything in the railways is aged and decaying; there are never enough safety measures. Railway journeys have become frightening and unsafe. Passenger carriage toilets stink and strew human excreta on railway tracks, corroding undercarriages, railway tracks, fittings and fixtures, and so on.

    –  The condition of the road transport system is no better.

    –  Most airlines are ailing too. Air India’s losses stood at `13,500 crore and debts at `18,000 crore while Kingfisher Airlines losses stood at `6000 crore and debts at `7000 crore by early 2012 (by 2014 they are on the brink of closure). Most airlines in our country are in a financial mess.

    –  The power scenario is gravely depressing. Shortages, load shedding, and outages are regular features, making people’s lives miserable and crippling industries and businesses. Losses of State Electricity Boards (SEBs) alone stood at `70,000 crore in 2010 and are likely to rise more than `1.0 lac crore in 2014 (India Today, 13 June, 2011). The total accumulated losses of SEBs stand at `2.5 lac crore (source: Shunglu Panel, January 2012 and Financial Express 25 February, 2012). A great factor of losses is government unmindful subsidies and free electricity to the consumers. Banks and financial institutions are shying away from extending them further finance (clipping 70). The situation is hugely worrying and set to be more agonising in times ahead due to the shortage and poor quality of coal, the struggles for environmental clearances, and the distressing delays in implementation of new projects. There is little effort on renewable energy sources and their R&D. In reality the power situation is grimmer than it appears due to forced slowdowns caused by protests by local people and social activists against new nuclear plants, for instance, Kudankulam Nuclear Plant at Tamil Nadu (the Supreme Court, on 6 May, 2013, permitted its operation), and similar hindrances against new hydro-power projects.

    –  Water shortage has assumed alarming proportions. Excessive use of groundwater has not only depleted our aquifers but also contaminated the water, making it unsafe for human consumption (Chapter 8.6). At least 25 percent of our country is afflicted with this curse (clippings 71A, 71B, and 71C). In many parts of our country the entire population is born crippled for life and leads a pathetic, neglected, and woeful existence.

    –  And then one has to encounter mind-boggling and unmanageable traffic and mammoth crowds on roads and streets. One is stumped at times to answer the call of nature, or when tackling emergencies. One may be baffled to imagine the future scenario!

    –  There are also huge cases of scams and swindling of national wealth: the 2G Spectrum scam (` 1.76 lac crore), the Commonwealth Games (CWG) scam (` 0.7 lac crore), the LIC Housing Loan scam, the stamp-paper scam, the Adarsh Housing Society scam, the Tatra Truck scam, and the Coalgate scam (` 1.86 lac crore), to name a few.

    –  The problem of scams in India is a chronic disease that has eaten into the means of the impoverished and pushed the nation into utter shambles. While the old ones are not settled, new ones keep surfacing on a regular basis. This menace has now assumed gigantic proportions.

    –  The Baba Ram Dev movement to call back the black money stashed overseas and the Anna Hazare anti-corruption movements and demand for a Lokpal Bill of their choice, is already a thorn in the side of the government. Anna Hazare has since called off his movement in August, 2012, but may start afresh. A regressive economy and mounting cases of scams sent the government into jeopardy by 2012. A state of limbo overtook the government and impeded decision-making, and industries suffered for want of government decisions and clearances. News through the media corroborated this (clipping 72). Part of the valuable time of the Parliament evaporated in allegations and counter-allegations dealing with these issues.

    The list above is a vivid and brief narration how our basic infrastructure is tottering and crumbling. The overall Indian scenario is pathetic and depressing. Under-performance and huge losses of our infrastructural set-ups are causing an enormous national loss. Year-in and year-out extravagances on reliefs and subsidies are not alleviating the plight of the poor. Instead, it is causing an immense dent in our economy and casting doubts on the prudence of such extravagances that go beyond our means.

    All of the above are resulting in huge financial deficits. The consequent inflation and spiralling prices are unnerving the common man. Our internal and external debts are galloping past safe limits. They also stand highest amongst the emerging economies in the world (clipping 39).

    Inference

    The rising level of poverty and anarchy, consistent shortage of water and electricity, creaking infrastructure, dwindling value of rupee, galloping inflation, and rising cases of scams present a frightening state of affairs in our nation that torment and terrify the people of India.

    Truly, wherever we look, India is in crisis, (India Today, 19 July, 2010, clipping 54B).

    Under these frightening conditions and minuscule hope on any front, it may be inappropriate to claim that our democracy has survived the test of time. Our grossly impoverished populace has somehow endured the untold miseries and sorrows of lives as the wish of God! They were subjugated before independence and had no voice. Now they are free but are rendered the largest population of economic slaves in the world. This is surely not passing the test of time. It is a debacle of our democracy! And therefore we can say that India’s freedom is not yet free.

    We now realise that our guardians are not capable* of taking care of the affairs of the country. The purpose of my present work is to identify the causes of the consistent fumbling of our governments and offer tangible remedies to prevent it. Sixty six years is a long time. Wisdom demands corrective steps to set all wrongs right and pull the nation out of wails and put on rails. And behold! It is possible! We just need a responsible and accountable system of governance and a steadfast Judiciary to play a conscientious guardian to nip the Legislature’s and Executive’s Constitutional violations right in the bud. Brownson’s remark at the beginning of this Genesis is quite pertinent and so also clipping 4.

    * When nagging and accusing each other becomes a political pastime, incumbencies walk out of the door and national interests become inconsequential!

    I have attempted to study cursorily a few worthy Constitutions of the world and the philosophy behind framing a Constitution. The reasons of our utter failures are basic and easy to identify. I have endeavoured to put forth these reasons in a comprehensible manner in Chapter 6. It is hoped that readers shall find the analysis lucid and enlightening. In our case the causes and effects have gone out of control and have turned the nation into a large static monolith. My researches (Part III) and their wise implementation can surely turn it around into a dynamic and bubbling nation full of vigour and hope.

    The time comes when the learned Judiciary must rise to establish a responsible and accountable system of governance, halt the lax work culture of the governments at the Union and the State levels, and direct them to accomplish the fundamental and inalienable economic and social objectives defined in Part IV of the Constitution in letter and spirit. The implementation of the Constitution (which is a gospel truth for the wellbeing of the people) is now an urgent need on the part of the Judiciary.

    The present attempt of the author will bring awareness amongst the people of the land and apprise them of the causes ailing our nation and remedies to cure them. It will also tell them the purpose of our Constitution and how it can protect us. With this awareness it is hoped that our people will be able to have a responsible and accountable system of governance to accomplish the basic objectives of our struggle for freedom and naturally empower our large famished and debilitated masses to lead a happy and dignified life without wants or fear of uncertainty for tomorrow! To realise this, guidelines and rudimentary roadmaps are provided in Part III.

    Author

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    Notes :

    1 (i) O. A. Brownson, The American Republic: its Constitution, Tendencies, and Destiny (1866)

    (ii) Principles of Constitutional Design, http://en.wikipedia.org wiki/Constitution

    2 National Sample Survey Organisation, Government of India.

    Part I

    Our Regression and

    Disntegrating Fraternity

    1

    India’s Right and Wrong Doings

    The educated people of the nation have proved their mettle at home and abroad. We have proved our might in science and technology. Industries are excelling and so also individual entrepreneurs and professionals, barring the past few years due to the global meltdown and internal regression. Nevertheless it is one side of the coin that shines at home and in the global arena. It is this side of coin that the economic pundits and fortune tellers rely on to predict India will be a superpower by 2050. The author wants this wishful forecast to come true.

    What worries the author and many of his kind is the other side of the coin that forms the bulk of our country: 86 percent, or more than 100 crore impoverished people (Table 2.9 (II) and clippings 14, 14A, 17, 19, 20, 24, and more). There are similar numbers of illiterates or semi-literates (Chapter 8.5). It is logical that those who are educated (only 14 percent or about 18 crore) of our populace are usually capable of treading their path to success. Not those who remain un-educated or semi-educated.

    Education alone can be a ladder to success

    The author is concerned about this side of the coin; swaggering with the success of merely 14 percent makes little sense. Surely, we, as concerned people, cannot play ostrich to the 86 percent part of the coin.

    The perennial failures of our governments to address these strata of our country continue unabated as researched, analysed and put forward through this book. This is despite enormous and ever-rising quotas and reservations (in jobs and education), various kinds of economic and social reliefs in forms of NREGA, mid-day meals, farmers’ loan waivers, Rojgar Yojnas, subsidies on loans, electricity and ridiculously low prices for food items like wheat and rice, food security bills, and other dole-outs to alleviate poverty. Reliefs and dole-outs are eating into our resources, but the plight of the impoverished refuses to improve. In fact it is worsening as per new finds of the NSSO (clipping 73A). It is suggestive of the fact that our governments (Legislature and Executive) are not able to address the maladies ailing the nation in real terms. The World Bank has also expressed similar views (clipping 8D).

    Moreover, all relief measures are indicative of economic slavery and lack of liberty, and are tantamount to gross human rights violations (HRVs). This is because there is a lack of the creation of opportunities and avenues to earn their living in a natural and dignified way. Reliefs and reservations belittle human self-esteem and dignity and violate our basic objectives. United Nations terms this practice "regressive measures which impede the Constitutional goal"¹ as described under Section 4.1 (II). It

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