Save Constitution from these crest-fallen pygmies!

In Mumbai, the Republic Day witnessed a feeble opposition ‘unity.’ Several opposition parties, including the Congress, NCP, CPI of both hues and several splinter groups and self-styled saviours of the Constitution of India, took to the streets and shouted slogans like “Save the Constitution” in a bid to mark their presence.

This frustrated, defeated and restless lot was rejected lock, stock and barrel by the people in last general elections. Even after the 2014 hustings the yesteryears’ heroes have not regained the lost ground. These marginalised political babies instead of indulging in the self-purification exercise and self-introspection have been disparately trying to degrade, demean and derogate the BJP and its allies who have been blessed with a massive mandate by the people.

Instead of gracefully accepting the people’s verdict these so-called democratic parties and fringe groups have been resorting to all sorts of gimmick without realising what amount of damage they have been causing to the country.

Beginning from ‘Award Wapsi’ to the recent ‘Save Constitution’ campaign these parties known for their autocratic, casteist, brazenly corrupt and anti-democratic governance in the past have by their acts of omission and commission shown nothing but disrespect and utter contempt for the ruling popular NDA at the Centre as well as in most of the States.

This outright rejection of the democratically elected government in accordance with the Constitution and laws made thereunder itself is an unconstitutional act and deserves to be condemned.

It is a matter of common sense that in a democracy, the will of the majority shall prevail. The minority population with whatever composition; whether of religion, caste, creed, sex or literacy has obviously no option but to fall in line with the majority decisions.

True, the majority may not be always right. Also, true that the decisions of the majority may not withstand the litmus taste of logic and propriety, but these are nothing but minor aberrations and have to be tolerated by the minorities. Here, minorities should be construed as the defeated lot at the elections.

The defeated political parties instead of pinpointing the ruling combine’s anti-Constitutional decisions have been indulging in mud-slinging. They perhaps think that the people’s memory is short. They think that people have forgotten the subversion of Constitution in 1975 when the Emergency was imposed and even the basic guarantees which the Constitution gives were snatched away from the people.

The people have also not forgotten the infamous Shah Bano’s case where just to appease a handful of fanatic Muslims the verdict of the Supreme Court was turned down through an amendment to the Constitution. The examples of violation of Constitutional provisions by the non-BJP governments are many and the magnitude of their unconstitutional acts is unimaginable.

Therefore, the out of power parties and their ‘comrades’ should remember well that the gimmicks like “Save Democracy’ would not influence the people. On the other hand, they will boomerang and expose these fringe parties in their true colours.

Think for a while if the majority of people decides to opt for declaring the country as the Hindu Rashtra, can any power on the earth stop it? True, the apex court verdict in Keshavanand Bharati that the basic structure of the Constitution cannot be changed may become a hurdle, but it would be of no consequence if the people want any change in the Constitution.

As Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan has said, “If the people want anything, they will get it.” In a nutshell, the Constitution is ‘safe’ because the ‘majority’ has kept it safe and not because of the ‘minority’ asking for it to be saved.

Toddy with many qualities!!
If the apex court buys the argument of the counsel for the Kerala Toddy Shop Licensee Association and Vaikom Taluk Chethu Thozhilali Union that ‘toddy’ is a traditional drink with many qualities and the State government agrees to amend the Kerala Abkari Act, 1902, whereby not treating ‘toddy’ as ‘liquor’ while enforcing the highway liquor ban in the State, then the happy days would return for tipplers soon.

The countrywide highway liquor ban was enforced following the Supreme Court judgment dated December 15, 2016 in State of Tamilnadu & Ors v. K.Balu & Anr.

Taking up the petitions seeking direction to the Kerala government not to treat ‘toddy’ as liquor, while enforcing the highway liquor ban in Kerala, a three-judge bench headed by the Chief Justice Dipak Misra asked the counsel for the Kerala government , “Why can’t an amendment be introduced in Kerala Abkari Act excluding ‘Toddy’ from the definition of ‘liquor’?”

Paradoxically, only recently the apex court had declined to direct the government to enact a law for imposing prohibition and chided the petitioner for coming up with such a plea which was not in accordance with the Constitution. Besides, a hefty fine of Rs 1 lakh was also slapped on the petitioner. Now the question that arises is: if the court cannot ask the State to enact a law, can it ask to amend the existing law?

It is an open secret that in the name of ‘toddy’ deadly chemicals are passed off to the poor addicts as a result of which hooch tragedies repeatedly occur in all parts of the country and many lives are lost. If the alcohol content in ‘toddy’ is insignificant as has been claimed by the petitioners’ counsel, then the very purpose of drinking it will be lost.

Obviously, the people, particularly the poor and lower middle class, drink ‘toddy’ to get intoxication. True, ‘Neera’ which is nothing but the ‘fresh’ juice of toddy tree, if taken before sunrise is a healthy drink as it does not contain any intoxicating substance, but the same after sunrise gets fermented and becomes an intoxicant. As the number of toddy trees are limited and the demand for cheap liquor is much higher, adulteration with harmful drugs such as diazepam is common.

Keeping general health of the people in mind, the makers of our Constitution have incorporated “Prohibition” as a directive principle in the Constitution. Therefore, all the three pillars of our democracy are duty-bound to respect the will of the Constitution makers and strive to materialise it rather than adopting lop-sided approach.

Rule of law convention
Country’s premier lawyers’ organisation, Bar Association of India (BAI), has scheduled to hold a three-day grand event in New Delhi from February 9 to 11. The Rule of Law Convention will be attended by the leaders of the Bar right from the level of the Supreme Court to High Courts to district courts, besides legal luminaries like judges, law teachers and others.

All aspects of law and judiciary, including the huge backlog of cases, paucity of judges, transparency in judiciary and the UN charter will be discussed at the event.

By Dr H C Upadhyay