Day of celebration & reflection

Today marks the 70th year since the inception of the Constitution and it is undoubtedly a day to celebrate. On January 26, 1950, India was declared a sovereign republic. The declaration had its foundation stemmed in a document that comprehensively aggregated the minimum powers of a government and the maximum powers of its citizens. It was drafted by a committee chaired by Babasaheb Ambedkar and other eminent people from across India like Jawaharlal Nehru, C. Rajagopalachari, Rajendra Prasad and Vallabhbhai Patel to name a few.

This Constitution of India was signed and accepted on November 26, 1949, and became the guiding principle of our nation. Recently though, there is a feeling amongst people in general that those principles may be a bit inadequate in these fast-changing times. This feeling transcends across all classes and creeds and is prevalent across the political divide from the far left to the far right. It can be felt amongst investors or even labourers, cutting across gender, economic and the entire demographic spectrum. This feeling has led to a lot of latent tensions in the society which manifest themselves as law and order erosion, economic downturn, communal heartburn and caste divisions wedged more and more by many in the political class exploiting it to their electoral benefit. Why is it so that an average citizen of India today feels that the entire constitutional structure of India is a fusion of exploitative conspiracy against the polite, the poor, the proletariat and the common citizen hatched by criminals, capitalists, intellectuals and politicians? Why are people in general also feeling that they too have either overtly or covertly become facilitators in fortifying this status-quo? Anniversaries like today are apt times to initiate a cerebral deliberation which is essential to break this ennui.

The Constitution of India comprehensively covered all our duties and granted us inalienable rights. The progressive outlook of our Constitution ensured provisions for justice, equality and liberty to every citizen of India. It synthesized India as a Union of States which was sovereign, with characters of a social, secular and democratic republic. The depth of our Constitution is exceptional; no wonder it is the longest written constitution of any country in the world. As Indians, we would be entirely right in celebrating this day which granted us rights that cannot be superseded or overridden by any government, majority or minority, be they Union, state or local body.

However, in this 71st year, we must also reflect on whether we are upholding our Constitution in its truest form. The onus of this refection is not only more on them who form the governments in today's India but also on those who elect these governments. This is We the People's solemn duty towards our beloved nation.

A starting point to this reflection can be considering Article 15 which prohibits discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth. Reports on religious discrimination are widespread today, with select elements wielding religious slogans as a war cry to whip up jingoism. In the face of such emotional outbursts, governments are invariably falling short in their duty to not discriminate against citizens on the aforementioned grounds. A glaring example of this can be found in the worrying death toll of 6,341 sewer cleaners between 1993 and 2018. This fact paints a grim picture of the national as well as various state governments' performance in ensuring equal security for all.

A few notable exceptions in this are the Delhi and Telangana governments who were the first in the country to work on resolving this serious issue. Isn't it a sad commentary that governments which successfully launch interplanetary vehicles such as Chandrayaan and Mangalyaan do not have the ability to lower a human being safely into a sewer? Why don't governments give serious importance to procuring a safe machine for sewer cleaning? At least the Delhi Government has banned manual entry into sewers and procured 200 such machines for the same community that manually cleaned sewers. These 200 machines have paved the way for the employment of 750 people. The families of those deceased in the process of the inhumane task of cleaning sewers manually were given 10 lakh rupees as token compensation for rehabilitation. The Delhi model is a replicable one and isn't it high time to urge that all governments reflect and work on its adaptability today?

Let us ponder further on the Directive Principles of State Policy (between Articles 33 to 50) of the Constitution which directs the Central and state governments to establish an economic and social democracy, as proposed in our Constitution's Preamble. The instructions are logical, practical, humanitarian and socialist. Article 39 lays down principles to provide adequate means of livelihood for all citizens, reduction of the concentration of wealth and capital and agrarian reforms. Articles 41 to 43 mandate the State to endeavour to secure for all its citizens the right to work and a living wage. Yet, today our country is witnessing shamefully low minimum wages and consolidation of wealth amongst a few super-rich, while our daily news is riddled with bulletins of thousands of farmers committing suicide due to penury. In times such as these, isn't it laudable when a small State government led by a rookie political dispensation led by a meritorious man like Arvind Kejriwal who enhances the minimum wages for unskilled workers at 14,842 rupees per month, for semi-skilled workers at 16,341 rupees per month and for skilled workers at 17,991 rupees per month? An initiative that directly benefits around 55 lakh workers in Delhi as well as fulfils a government's bounden duty towards its citizens as directed in Article 39.

The Directive Principles also include all the social, economic and cultural rights, such as the right to education, the right to livelihood and the right to health. Axiomatically, it is the duty of the governments to make adequate provisions. Yet, the Union budget of 2019 allocated a mere 2.32 per cent on healthcare which is a paltry 0.34 per cent of the country's GDP. The share of the union budget allocated to education fell from 4.14 per cent in 2014-15 to 3.4 per cent in 2019-20. All this happened as the unemployment rate rose to a three-year high of 8.5 per cent.

To rub salt into an already septic wound, recent reports suggest that although the Constitution requires the Union to transfer 42 per cent of all its revenues to the states, in the last five years, the actual transfer has only been 33 per cent. The nadir is reached in case of Delhi state which receives only 325 Crore rupees from the centre while contributing around 1,50,000 Lakh crore rupees as Income Tax revenue towards the Union government. In fact, Delhites are giving nearly 450 times more to the Union than what they are getting from it. Despite this, isn't it laudable that Delhi Govt is still able to increase its budget from 8,739 crore rupees in 2001-02 to 60,000 crore rupees in 2019-20? All this was possible due to simple adherence to fiscal discipline and honest world-class governance.

In such a skewed scenario, I still can proudly state that I am a part of a state government that has increased minimum wages in Delhi and is allocating a substantial budget of 26 per cent and 14 per cent to universal education and healthcare respectively. It is my humble understanding and pleading to other governments across India to work diligently in their endeavour to abide by the Directive Principles enshrined by our founding fathers.

Additionally, in our capacity as common citizens of India, as aam aadmis, we are all supposed to reflect on the fundamental duties laid out by our Constitution. The contemporary reports of communal and/or individual violence, the quality of our environment and the dilapidation/ vandalism of public property, amongst other factors, are worrisome.

We, the people of India must intervene to uphold the Indian Constitution by promoting the spirit of harmony and brotherhood, protecting the natural environment and safeguarding our public properties. Today, on our 70th Constitution Day, as we befittingly celebrate, we must also reflect on what we – the governments and citizens of India – have done, are doing and plan to do in the future to work in tandem with the spirit of our Constitution.

In the immortal words of Thomas Jefferson –"I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them but to inform their discretion by education. This is the true corrective of abuses of constitutional power."

Rajendra Pal Gautam is Minister of Social Welfare, Delhi Government. Views expressed are strictly personal