A republic is made strong and alive by the countrymen. In its present form, the Republic of India has completed 73 years maintaining a dynamic balance. It often feels pressured by the pulls of forces that represent India’s plurality and diversity. The credit should be given to the countrymen that today we have a three-tiered representative system, which governs us, in the shape of a pyramid.
Despite its flaws, the system today has over three million elected representatives (of which one million are women), over 4,000 elected members in state legislatures and over 500 elected to parliament. The preamble envisaged a republic to be governed by the people themselves through freely elected representatives. This scale of directly elected representation is, perhaps, nowhere to be seen anywhere else in the world. It can be accused of arguing, making noise, and sometimes giving excessive importance to something, but it has a constant zest for life.
Before 1950, 26 January was celebrated as Independence Day, which was started after the resolution of complete independence (Purna Swaraj) adopted in Lahore Congress in 1929. Once we got independence from the imperialist ruler and the constitution was adopted, this day was celebrated as our Republic Day.
In Pilgrimage to Freedom, KM Munshi writes, “The Constitution is not merely a legal document, nor is it a political document. It is true that it was prepared by lawyers with the help of political leaders who had won the freedom struggle. He had a historical role. To create a framework within which our national unity and democratic way of life can flourish. Essentially, our Constitution has a moral background – to ensure justice for every section of the society; There is also a spiritual foundation – to safeguard and preserve all religions in their activities… Leaders of my generation have left in the Constitution a legacy of freedom, rule of law, freedom of expression and religion, and above all, integrity and stability, whose The joy of happiness the country had never experienced in the last 500 years.
Undoubtedly, during the last seven decades our Constitution has given integrity and stability, which is very important for our republic. The challenges of securing justice for each and every section of the society still exist. Backward Classes, Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and poor people from all communities are fighting for better opportunities and affordable justice. During these seven decades’ journey of our republic, SC, ST and women were deprived of constitutional rights in a region of India which has been resolved by abrogating Article 370.
Munshi considers the spiritual basis of our constitution to be safe and protected of all religions, but this too has had to bear many pressures. The perversion in following the principle of secularism (during the Emergency, implemented later) through minority appeasement for vote politics had deprived women of the minority community of their legitimate rights.
The opposition to the Act that repealed triple talaq showed how Muslim women in India were denied the rights enjoyed by women in many Islamic countries, mainly for electoral reasons. Minority appeasement reappears when the religious rights of one community are upheld while the other community is denied equal rights.
The issue of religious rights, in terms of its seriousness, may differ from state to state, but is not said to be objective or impartial when the generally suspects portray it as a nationwide uprising. can go. When one is denied or threatened with the right to practice a religion, the silence of the enlightened or the media undermines constitutionally implied protections. The strength of the republic is weakened by the hypocritical values and the deliberate silence of the watchdog organisations.
There is no doubt that communication technologies strengthen modern republics. Technology has reduced the cost of sharing information and spreading awareness among people. It is a powerful tool, which has now become thoroughly democratic in nature. An unexpected consequence of this democratization or its accessibility is the creation and sharing of unverified news or false news. Through the power of technology and its ability to disseminate on a large scale, social media, which is a useful medium, has become a challenge and even a threat to one or the various rights enshrined in our Constitution. Cutting them down to protect the rights of citizens is seen as curtailing the right to freedom of expression. Without any action, the damage to social harmony caused by such large-scale false news may result in people losing faith in the Constitution itself.
Subhash C Kashyap says, “Our Constitution is a lively and dynamic process, which is constantly evolving and being continuously shaped by amendments, judicial considerations and the modalities of actual functioning.”
Compared to all the constitutions of the world, our constitution has got the most amendments. It is true that successive governments have ensured that the constitution is in line with the times and aspirations of the people. If there have been more than 100 amendments to the Constitution, there are more than 1,500 laws that have been repealed because these laws lost their importance over time. These useless laws, remaining on paper, sometimes became weapons for the administration. Their repeal as a part of administrative reform has made the role of the executive transparent and accountable. It is necessary that every change in the constitution should be done keeping in mind that the original purpose of the framers of the constitution should not be affected.
Our Constitution is constantly evolving, the best example of this is the 101st Amendment, through which the Goods and Services Tax was implemented. Through this amendment, a unified indirect tax system was implemented by merging most of the indirect taxes of the Center and the states. GST Council was constituted. The Council has the power to take decisions on issues related to GST and the rates applicable to each and every item covered under it. Five years are yet to be completed, but the GST Council has stood the test of challenging times even in its initial years. This augurs well for cooperative federalism.
Our Constitution has served us well in these seven decades. After the era of imperialism many republics rejected their earlier constitutions and implemented new ones. Babasaheb Ambedkar had realized, “The working of the Constitution does not entirely depend on the nature of the Constitution. The constitution can only provide for the organs of the state such as the legislature, executive and judiciary. The factors on which the functioning of those organs of the state depend are the people and the political parties, which the people will establish as their tools to fulfill their aspirations and party politics. Therefore, it is the people who can keep the republic strong and vibrant.