"SECULAR"
and "SOCIALIST"
The two showpieces of the Constitution
—
Amba Charan
Vashishth
—
An unnecessary, unsavoury controversy has been generated by some political
parties and individual on the issue of non-appearance in the government ad
in the Preamble marking the 66th anniversary of the coming into
force of the Constitution of the words "secular" and
"socialist" that were added in 1976 through 42nd Amendment
to the Constitution. Ironically a similar add had appeared in 2012 too when UPA
was in power. The words "secular" and "socialist" are just
decorative showpieces. In reality of the social and political life of the
country, these have failed to make their presence felt.
In one of his
couplets famous Urdu poet Mirza Ghalib said that if you have no work at hand, unstitch
your clothes and sew them again to keep yourself busy. That exactly is what the
present opposition seems to be doing. Bankrupt of issues to beat the NDA
government with, the latest instance of the hue and cry raised over an
advertisement issued on the occasion of the 66th anniversary of the
Republic of India. The ad shows a watermark of the original Preamble to the
Constitution which came into force on that day and is available in the
Parliament of India. The ad does not contain the words "secular" and
"socialist" as these were not part of the Preamble on that day.
Moreover, the
occasion was the 66th anniversary of the Constitution adopted on
January 26, 1950 and not of the 1976 42nd Amendment which added the two
words.
Condemning the add
the erudite former I&B Minister Manish Tiwari anticipated that
"perhaps the NDA wanted to replace the words "secular and
socialist" in the Preamble with "communal and capitalist*. But Tiwari
seems oblivious of the fact that an ad containing that very watermark of the
Preamble was issued by UPA government of which he was then a part. Will Tiwari stand by his words to say that in
2012 his UPA too was motivated by the same intention as he alleges the NDA with
today?
Still more
surprising is the outburst of the retired Delhi High Court chief justice
Rajinder Sachar who threatened legal action against the government. As a person
who knows law and justice he owes an explanation to the people why was he not
"shocked by the mischief and deplorable omission of the words "secular"
and "socialist" from the Indian Constitution Preamble" in 2012?
Why did he then not see "treason to the Constitution….(and)…an
unpardonable negligence" ?
The insertion of
the words "secular" and "socialist" in the Preamble in 1976
in itself appears to be a half-hearted
attempt by the then Indira government to derive political mileage and, perhaps,
to humour Russia which was then the only pillar of support and strength to the
government which then stood isolated in the world for 'murder of democracy' in
India. There seems to be a deliberate design in leaving the two
words undefined to let different people and parties the unbridled liberty to
interpret these differently in their own way to suit their political purpose at
a particular point of time. That is why every leader and political party enjoys
the unrestrained freedom to claim to be 'secular' and dub the opponent as
'communal'. Even those political organizations whose membership is restricted
to a single community claim themselves to be 'secular'. At times when an
independent or a party supports, they are honoured as 'secular' and the moment
they quit the alliance they are condemned 'communal'. V. P. Singh was comfortable as long as BJP
was supporting from outside his Janta
Dal government at the Centre. The moment it withdrew support, overnight BJP
became untouchable and 'communal' for Singh. Same is true of Lallu Yadav and Nitish Kumar.
The Constitution
now does speak of 'secularism' but does not provide a scale with which to determine
whether a person or party is 'secular'
or not. As a result on the issue of 'secularism' and 'communalism' has become a
jungle raj where everybody can claim anything and charge his opponent with
anything without having to prove the point.
Mentioning secularism is meaningless unless it is defined
and codified. In fact, dharma is being wrongly translated in Hindi as
'religion' and secularism as dharmnirpekshta. Dharma is not religion.
Oxford dictionary defines it as "(in Indian religion) truth or law that
affects the whole universe". The Supreme Court has given a verdict that dharma
is not a religion but a way of life. That is why in the Hindi version of our
Constitution secularism is mentioned as panthnirpekshta. And when was
the Hindu society not secular? Our holy books speak of sarvdharam sambhaav,
meaning all religions are equal. Nothing can be more secular than this concept.
Because of panthnirpekshta, Hindu society did not witness killings on
account of diversity of faith or change of mode of worship. Killings on account
of faith animosity ushered in in the country with the onset of the Muslim
invasions and British domination. The founding fathers of the Constitution had
refrained from inserting the word “secular” only because they never doubted
that Hindu society can ever be not secular.
The insertion of the word “socialist” without defining it
is as much a misnomer as is “secular”. Socialism means different things to
different people in different countries. USSR, now Russia, China, Cuba and many
other countries are ‘socialist’ ones but socialism varies from country to country.
Many of our political parties, like the Samajwadi Party, Janta Dal (U), JD(S),
Lalu’s RJD, RSP and the communist parties claim themselves ‘socialist’ but
none’s concept of socialism is one and the same. It changes with the person and
the party. So calling the country a “socialist” republic is as vague and
incomprehensible as “secular”.
Further,
the father of the Indian Constitution, Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, had opposed the
insertion of the word “socialist” saying “I don’t see why the Constitution
should tie down the people to live in a particular form and not leave it to the
people themselves to decide it for themselves”. Why should the future
generations of Indians be perennially bound constitutionally to live in a
particular form of society and government? Why should they be barred from change as per
their will under the changed circumstances?
Even
without these two words the various Articles virtually make the Constitution "secular"
and "socialist" because it prohibits discrimination on grounds of
faith. The Constitution provides for equal opportunities and rights to all
irrespective of caste, creed, sex and region.
A
dharma guru some years back told in clear terms that no way of life could be more
socialist than the Hindu one which says that a person has no right on more than
what he can eat and the rest is for all. He further explained that there could
be no equality between a horse and an ass. He said in his ashram he had men and
women shishyas, cows, goats, dogs etc. and he loves them all. But his
love for each is not — and cannot be — equal and similar with all. That is life
and truth.
In
reality the mere saying so in the Preamble does not make the Indian government,
political parties and the people "secular" and "socialist".
Their mere inclusion is not a panacea for all the ills of
secularism-communalism and poverty facing the country. Despite their being in
the Preamble, neither has communal harmony become the order of the day, nor have
the communal riots become a thing of the past nor is socialism ruling the roost.
During the last about forty years of the country having been declared
"socialist", poverty has seen just a marginal drop. The gap between
the rich and the poor continues to widen.
The
Statement of Objects and Reasons for the 42nd Amendment that
prompted the then Indira Government to incorporate the two words states that it was done "to spell out
expressly the high ideals of socialism, secularism and …to make the directive
principles more comprehensive". The intention, it stated, is "to give
them precedence over those fundamental rights which have been allowed…to
frustrate socio-economic reforms" by specifying "the fundamental
duties of the citizens and make special provisions for dealing with
anti-national activities, whether by individuals or associations".
The last forty
years of the Amendment to the Constitution have proved that it was nothing more
than a showpiece with hardly anything to feel proud on the score of achievements
of the aims and objectives for which it was passed.
***
The writer is a Delhi-based political
analyst. E-mail: acvashishth@gmail.com
