This month, the Supreme Court stood up to the powerful executive on free speech, governors as centre’s agents and on bulldozer justice. Though the highest court has not acted with the alacrity the situation warranted, in difficult times such restatement of democratic values provide a sense of hope. The parliament also rammed the Waqf bill 2024 amidst the strong push back by a weak opposition.
Today, it is the birth anniversary of one of the founder pillars of the Constitution, Babasaheb Ambedkar in his last speech to the constituent assembly said “…however good a constitution may be, it is sure to turn out bad because those who are called to work it, happen to be a bad lot. However bad a Constitution may be, it may turn out to be good if those who are called to work it, happen to be a good lot”.
After 75 years of working of the Constitution, it is of course time to find out whether we got a bad lot or a good lot to work the Constitution. If we look at some of the judgements coming from the Apex Court and some path breaking judgements of the Goa bench of the Bombay HC, it is only obvious that the governance is rotten both at the Centre and in our State. Bad governance cannot only emanate from a good lot.
Justice Oka led SC bench, while dealing with a poem of an MP questioned whether after 75 years into our republic we can be seen to be so shaky, that mere recital of a poem or for that matter stand-up comedy can be alleged to trigger enmity or hatred amongst different communities”. The right of free speech was placed on a
very high pedestal of a fundamental right by the constituent assembly.
The Waqf bill 2024 is looked at as an attack on the economic wherewithal of the minority community. On 2nd December 1948, addressing certain reservations by the Muslim members of the constituent assembly on the Uniform Civil Code, Babasaheb cautioned ‘no government can exercise its power in such a manner as to provoke the Muslim community to rise in rebellion and then he went on ‘it would be a mad government if it did so’. Even before the partition, speaking on the objective resolution on December 17, 1946, he warned “… If there is anybody who has in his mind the project of solving the Hindu-Muslim problem by force, which is another name of solving it by war … in order that the Muslims may be subjugated…(T) his country would be involved in perpetually conquering them.” Ambedkar’s words in 1946 deserve to recalled as the passage of the Wafq bill 2024 spells the very antithesis of hope for the Muslims pushed to the corner by bulldozers, mob lynchers and those advocating boycott of Muslim traders in different parts of the country. The country is divided on religious intolerance and communal hatred. Babasaheb, it appears had premonition of the shape of things to come. As Teltumde tells us that Dr Ambedkar had said that Hindu raj would be the biggest calamity to India. His bringing in the concept of ‘fraternity’ along with liberty and equality was bring in a sense of solidarity and clearly a thinking against rule of majority over the minority. The principle of fraternity ought to look practices of other faiths not through the principle of tolerance but through the prism of respect.
In a path breaking judgement, the highest court dealt with the mischief of governors acting as agents of the central ruling party by setting a timeline for passing of bills. The constituent assembly and its members were wary of the future. In the constituent assembly debates when the power of the governors was discussed Babasaheb was clear – That the Governor was bound to act as per the wishes of the cabinet. When H V Kamat another member questioned ‘won’t he be able to delay or obstruct…?’ Kamat’s apprehensions lingered on until a Supreme Court bench decided to intervene.
Mrs. Gandhi imposed emergency when democracy evaporated into a thin air. Ours is a land of elections and we boast ours to be mother of democracy. Currently our country is dumped as an elected autocracy or a flawed democracy The institutions meant to keep the democracy in place are made to collapse as state agencies close in on political opponents of the regime. Babasaheb, it appears knew what would come when those kindled with autocratic instincts take over. On 4th November 1948, he told the constituent assembly that it was possible to pervert the Constitution without changing it’s form, by merely changing the form of administration and to make it inconsistent and opposed to the spirit of the Constitution. We see that happening under the very Constitution which he piloted.
Personality cults and personality driven politics is now the order of the day. It appears that even 76 years ago, Babasaheb saw it coming. He reminded us of what John Steward Mill said never to trust anyone with the powers to subvert the institutions if one wanted to maintain democracy. Ambedkar was against personality cults. He was opposed to Bhakti which he claimed that was part of devotion of hero worship. There was clarity that bhakti in religion may be road to salvation of the soul but bhakti in politics is a sure road to degradation and to eventual dictatorship. He was so prophetic! He is not only a Dalit icon but a rare jewel of our times. His world view and understanding of our country gives him a place in history which very few can reach.
(The writer is a practising Advocate & political thinker who taught Constitutional laws for over three decades)