India
is celebrating its Republic Day on January 26. The constitution of India came
into effect on this day in 1950. Ever since, India has come a long way, in an
evolutionary manner as against a revolutionary way, in its development and
progress. We, I think, remained on tracks. So far so good. India still has to
go a long way on the road to transform its political democracy into social and
economic democracy, as visualized by our fore-fathers particularly Dr. B.R.
Ambedkar, the main architect of the constitution. It is a matter of concern and
worries that social inequalities particularly the caste system are still
prevalent and harming the social fabric of the society. The ruling elite,
somehow, could not rise and stand up to meet the challenge. Mere legal framework
will not do. Rather than paying a lip service, the society needs to undergo a
drastic change to bring about social change and empowerment. For this change,
political will and social transformation is needed, before it gets too late.
Otherwise, as warned by Dr. Ambedkar that people who are suffering from these
inequalities for centuries would blow the edifice of political democracy we so
laboriously established.
The
second warning which Dr. Ambedkar gave in his last speech in the Constituent
Assembly on November 25, 1949 is more relevant in the prevailing political
scenario in the country. The agitational approach of the urban middle class and
a section of the educated elite have thrown up new challenges which tend to
undermine the constitutional set up. New political outfits like the Aam Adami
Party (APP) have come up. The style of functioning and the objectives they
profess to achieve, prima facie, appears more effective and convincing. They
tend to raise hopes to meet the hopeless situations in the prevailing general
environment of corruption, inflation, VIP culture etc. But in the process, they
tend to over look and overrule the established tenets of governance and
constitutionally valid norms. Here lies the difficulty. The marginalized
sections of the society particularly the socially oppressed, to my mind, may
not gain out of this approach. Their only shelter, these vulnerable sections of
the society will find, is that of the constitutional arrangements till they are
socially and economically empowered. The parties like AAP and their leadership
are oblivious of the issues of dalit empowerment through affirmative actions
like reservations and establishing of a casteless society though they swear by
the Preamble of the constitution “We the people of India”. I only hope that
this “we the people” include the oppressed and depressed masses. These are the
hard ground realities which were working in the minds of our fore-fathers led
by Dr. Ambedkar and his associates while framing the constitution. Keeping these realities and ground situation
in mind, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar warned and said “If we wish to maintain democracy
not merely in form, but also in fact, what must we do? The first thing in my judgment
we must do is to hold fast to constitutional methods of achieving our social
and economic objectives. It means we must abandon the bloody methods of
revolution. It means that we must abandon the method of civil disobedience,
non-cooperation and satyagraha. When there was no way left for constitutional
methods for achieving economic and social objectives, there was a great deal of
justification for unconstitutional methods. But where constitutional methods
are open, there can be no justification for these unconstitutional methods.
These methods are nothing but the Grammar of Anarchy and the sooner they are
abandoned, the better for us.”
We
may ignore these warnings of one of the wisest leaders of India at our own peril. With this, long
live the Republic of India.
