Ram Madhav – Don’t Rewrite the Indian Constitution

Context:

• This article is based on an Editorial “Ram Madhav writes: Don’t rewrite the Indian Constitution” which was published in the Indian Express. The Constitution Day of India (Samvidhan Diwas) is celebrated on November 26 every year, which commemorates the adoption of the Indian Constitution by the Constituent Assembly in 1949.
• Nowadays several voices are emerging to replace the Original Constitution.

The Different and Unique Story of the Indian Constitution:

• A Highly Discussed Document: The draft Indian constitution prepared by the committee headed by Dr B R Ambedkar was thoroughly discussed in the Constituent Assembly, with a suggestion of 7,635 amendments.
  • The Indian Constitution finally contained 395 articles and eight schedules. 
• A Hope for Underprivileged Sections: It gave new hope to 320 million Indians, especially to millions of underprivileged citizens like the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
• Criticisms: A “colonial constitution”, as a large part of it, was a “copy-paste” from the Government of India Act 1935. 
  • Against such apprehensions, Dr. Rajendra Prasad (the chairman of the Constituent Assembly) said that they were “not bound to have a Constitution which completely and fully falls in line with known categories of Constitution in the world”. 

Earlier Reviews and Proposals of Reforms:

• Simon Commission, 1927: For reviewing the working of the Government of India Act, 1919, and proposing constitutional reforms for the country. 
  • Boycotted by the Indian National Congress: As there was not a single Indian member in the Commission.
    • Britishers’ Response: They sought to challenge Indians to prove that they could draw up a constitution of their own.
• Challenge by Lord Birkenhead: He was the Secretary of State for India, in the House of Lords in 1925, calling Indians to “produce a constitution which has an agreement among the great peoples of India”. 
  • Indians’ Response: Leaders of the nationalist movement accepted the challenge by setting up an all-party conference in December 1927 to draft a constitution for India. 
    • Formation of Nehru Report: Motilal Nehru with Subhas Chandra Bose, Annie Besant, M R Jayakar, Jawaharlal Nehru, a couple of Muslim League representatives, and others as its members prepared a draft constitution in 1928 that became popular as “the Nehru Report”.

Also Read: Making of the Constitution

Examples of Rewriting of Constitutions in the World:

• France: France has had over a dozen constitutions between 1791 and 1958 and the latest one is the Fifth Republic.
• Nepal: Nepal had six constitutions between 1948 and 2007, and the latest one was in 2015. 
• Chile: Chile in South America rewrote its Constitution in 2021.

Why is the Rewriting of the Indian Constitution not Required?

• Examples from the World: Many countries, including the US, run their affairs without interfering with their constitutions too much, and several countries, like the UK and Israel, don’t even have a written constitution. 
• The solution is in the Constitution Itself: It was correctly observed by Dr. Rajendra Prasad that “If the people who are elected are capable and men of character and integrity, they would be able to make the best even of a defective Constitution. If they are lacking in these, the Constitution cannot help the country.”

Conclusion:

If the demand for rewriting gets high pitch, then it should be remembered that any potential rewriting must uphold the principles of a “fair measure of general agreement” among India’s highly socially and economically diverse population.

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