Citizens Call ‘Save Constitution, Save Democracy’
COMBATING right reactionary onslaught on constitution, its ethos and core values, All India Lawyers Union (AILU), Delhi Union of Journalists (DUJ) Democratic Teachers Front (DTF) jointly organised a national convention on ‘Save Constitution, Save Democracy’ on January 7, in New Delhi.
Justice V Gopala Gowda, former judge of the Supreme Court of India inaugurated the convention. He made scathing criticism against ruling dispensation at the centre saying that during the last eight years, the values of liberty, equality, and fraternity are being endangered “because of the ascendance of right reactionary forces in the society” and “attempts to transform the democratic states into a Hindu fascist state.” In his speech, Justice Gowda criticised the Sangh Parivar government at the centre for bringing about CAA and NRC for changing the “bedrock of the secular republic in India.”
Illustrating the failure of the Supreme Court, Justice Gowda said that the track record of the Supreme Court in the last eight years is disappointing. He criticised the Supreme Court for its refusal to timely hear the very important matters concerning the nation and relating to Article 370 and electoral bonds. Constitutional and democratic institutions like the CAG and Election Commission which are conceived as independent supervisors of the executive as per the constitution have been reduced into an “extended organ” of the union government. Justice Gowda made scathing attack on the executive for its attack on judiciary. He has also made strong observations and criticism against curbing of press freedom and attacks against journalists and referred to the killing of journalist Gauri Lankesh and incarceration of journalist Siddique Kappan in violation of fundamental rights guaranteed under the constitution. He observed “when a journalist from Bombay was arrested, the Supreme Court granted him bail in one day, though his bail petition was pending in the trial court. However, when Siddique Kappan’s case came, the Supreme Court asked him to go to the lower court.
With respect to demonetisation judgment of the constitution bench of the Supreme Court he lauded Justice B V Nagarathna for her dissent and said “the lonely judge had the courage and conviction to uphold the constitutional democracy in this country.”
Appreciating the efforts to organise this national convention, he observed “the current trajectory of Indian politics reminds one of the first decade of Pakistan and Afghanistan and stressed the duty of lawyers to organise campaigns to protect the constitution before it becomes too late.
General secretary of the All India Lawyers Union introduced the subject highlighting the point that democracy is more than holding periodic elections and legislative supremacy. It has got substantive content reflected in values and principles as equality, secularism, tolerance, reasonableness, good faith, public order, rule of law, non discrimination and justice; if democracy is anchored only on supremacy of legislature, without checks and balances it will lead to authoritarianism and fascism through the very same “democratic process” as we witnessed in Germany and elsewhere; the very thing we are witnessing in India.
Senior Adv. Indira Jaising delivered the key note address in this convention. She highlighted the point that “the ruling dispensation no more pretends to defend liberal democracy and instead tries to convince us that the freedom struggle never happened and is rather happening now.” She said “they are quite simply ignoring the constitution of India.” “This is the challenge for us. How do you deal with a ruling dispensation that chooses to ignore the constitution of India? Remember that the constitution has not been amended since 2014 except in the case of abrogation of Article 370. All other changes we have seen by way of attack have come through legislation and through ordinary practice.” She highlighted that “the ruling dispensation after 2014 tried to convince us that the freedom struggle never happened and is rather happening now, that all our rights and democratic practices originate from vedas, in continuity that was paused, that the word secularism must be dropped from the constitution and that we must be governed by cultural nationalism instead of a constitution.”
Indira Jaising also made a serious and very vital observation that judges too are contributing to the attack on the ethos of our constitutional democracy, referring to extra judiciary utterances of certain judges that the constitutional principles are from Ramayana and Kautilya. She said "it is ahistorical to suggest that there is continuity in political thought between the vedas and the constitution. In India, there was a sharp contrast between the past and the constitution when for the first time we talked about values such as equality, democracy and integrity of the individual. The values in the constitution were cemented by Dr Ambedkar. There was a conscious attempt to de-brahminise the Indian society and abolish caste system.
She elaborated the point stating that “Kautilya’s Arthashastra specially called for preservation for varna dharma which promoted caste system.
Justice Rekha Sharma, former judge, Delhi High Court also spoke making criticism against the actions of the ruling dispensation undermining the constitution.
Senior advocate Raju Ramachandran highlighted the point that the gradual obliteration of state and religion is dangerous to India’s democracy. He stressed the point that the situation today is much more frightening than the Emergency. While commenting about freedom of press and role of the media in the Indian context, he made a serious observation that the role of the media itself in undermining our constitutional values is not adequately highlighted; fourth estate today is significantly responsible for undermining our constitutional values. He also made scathing criticism against the ruling dispensation at the centre in violating the principles of federalism through governors of the state. Governors are acting/ functioning against the state governments.
Dr Nandita Narain emphasised the undemocratic intervention by the ruling dispensation undermining the public education. Education is becoming more and more a corporate business affair. It is becoming more and more digitalised and online. Rational thinking is being discouraged to facilitate transformation to an irrational generation and society without scientific temper, humanism and the spirit of inquiry.
S K Pande, veteran jounalist talked about the onslaught on freedom of press, assault on journalists, violation of freedom of expression and targeted prosecution of journalists abusing UAPA and NIA and the necessity to forge a broad platform to fight against the actions of the Modi government.
Around 300 activist lawyers, journalists, teachers and other persons from various states participated in the convention. The convention concluded with a strong resolve to mobilise people from all walks of life behind the slogan ‘Save Constitution, Save democracy’ and to form a broad platform to save our democracy and the nation, resisting and fighting against the onslaught on constitution.
