VOL. XL NO. 34 PAGES 48 NEW DELHI 21 - 27 NOVEMBER 2015 ` 8.00

WE THE PEOPLE: GETTING TO KNOW OUR CONSTITUTIONDr. Subhash C. Kashyap

O n 26 November, 1949, "We, thepeople of India...in our Constituent

Assembly" resolved to "adopt, enactand give to ourselves" the Constitutionof independent India. The day is everyyear celebrated as the Constitution Dayor the Law Day. The Chairman of theDrafting Committee, Dr. Ambedkar andthe President of the Assembly, Dr.Rajendra Prasad, speaking on 25 and26 November,1949 sounded words ofwisdom and warning for us. Dr.Ambedkar said:

"However good a Constitution maybe, it is sure to turn out bad becausethose who are called to work it, happento be a bad lot. However bad aConstitution may be, it may turn out tobe good if those called upon to work it,happen to be a good lot....Who can sayhow the people of India and their par-ties will behave". Dr. Rajendra Prasadin his concluding speech said, inalmost the same vein: "If the peoplewho are elected are capable and menof character and integrity, they wouldbe able to make the best even of adefective Constitution. If they are lack-ing in these, the Constitution cannothelp the country....India needs todaynothing more than a set of honestmen... of strong character, men ofvision, men who will not sacrifice theinterests of the country at large for thesake of smaller groups and areas".

The Constituent Assembly consist-

ed of some of the wisest men andwomen - distinguished lawyers, jurists,scholars, patriots and freedom fighters.It accomplished the tremendous task ofworking out an acceptable Constitutionfor a highly diverse and fragmentedsociety with many divergent pulls andformidable problems.

The Constitution was finally signedby members of the ConstituentAssembly on 24 January 1950 - theday of the last sitting of the Assembly.

Our Constitution came into opera-tion and the largest ever "SovereignDemocratic Republic" on earth wasborn on 26 January, 1950. That day is,therefore, remembered as our Republic

Day.Little talked about but one of the

most valuable Parts of our Constitution,PART IV A, article 51A (added in 1977)lays down eleven Fundamental Duties"of every citizen of India". Of these, thevery first duty requires all of us "toabide by the Constitution and respectit's ideals and institutions...".Unfortunately, there is terrible constitu-tional illiteracy in our country. Vastmajority of our citizens are unaware ofthe Constitution and even more igno-rant of any fundamental constitutionalduties of citizenship. In such a sce-nario, how can we expect any under-standing or appreciation of

our Constitution and respect for itsideals and institutions ? How many ofus, even among the educated, haveany idea or comprehension of the'ideals and institutions of theConstitution'?

Democracy and freedom demandeternal vigilance and active participa-tion of the people in the processes ofgovernance. We need to know what isthe scheme of our Constitution, how itworks, how we are governed and whatall are our constitutional rights andresponsibilities. It is of the utmostimportance that effective steps aretaken on the highest priority basis toprovide to all our people in differentsections and at various levels adequateknowledge and understanding of ourConstitution, its objectives, basic val-ues and the working of its institutions.

The edifice of every Constitution isbuilt on the plinth of the country's past.It represents the vision and values of itsfounding fathers and is based on thesocial, political and economic ethosand the faith and aspirations of thepeople. It would be wrong to regard acountry's constitution as an inert docu-ment. For, Constitution is not only whatis written in the text of its provisions.Constitution is a living organism offunctioning institutions. It keeps con-stantly growing, evolving. Constitution--making is a dynamic, continuous

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Sardar Patel - An Embodiment ofNational Unity

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FOOD SCIENCE AND NUTRITION AS A CAREER

F ood Science and Nutrition as a subject emphasizes onideas, interdisciplinary mindset, collaborative thinking;

and the commitment to apply the knowledge to resolve vari-ous societal dilemmas related to food and nutrition security.Food Science and Nutrition as a subject uses interdiscipli-nary tools from different sectors like Food & Nutrition,Dietetics, Food Service Management, Public HealthNutrition among others. Food Science and Nutrition has itsuniqueness which can be linked to many more subjects andhas a vast scope both in clinical and development sectors.

As we know, India has been facing double burden of mal-nutrition problem, i.e. both under nutrition and over nutrition.Public health nutritionist trained under Food Science andNutrition stream can play an important role in designing dif-ferent nutrition interventions to address malnutrition issueson a large scale. It has a key role to play in growth anddevelopment of the vulnerable groups like children andwomen of reproductive age group. It is one of the mostapplied and interdisciplinary subject in our present educa-tional system. Moreover, with a rising concern about healthand eating habits, the field of Nutrition and Dietetics is gain-ing a lot of importance day by day. Due to growing concernabout obesity, diabetes, hypertension, ulcers and othermajor diseases arising due to faulty eating habits, the role ofnutritionist has increased many folds. Scope of Food and Nutrition under Public health

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nutrition background. Recently, Government has launchedNutrition Mission under Social Welfare department in somestates, where consultants and other technical officials fromFood and Nutrition background have been given preference.They are appointed both at national and state level to imple-ment the programmes successfully in the field. As the pro-gramme is implemented throughout the country people fromFood and Nutrition background will have wide scope.

Food and Nutrition Board of India under Ministry ofWomen and Child Development is having technical positionsto cater to Food and Nutrition background persons.Depending on the number of vacancies available, UPSCconducts interviews for posts of Food & Nutrition Board(FNB).

National Institute of Public Cooperation & ChildDevelopment (NIPCCD) is also having positions for nutritiondiseipline, like Deputy Director, Assistant Director,

Continued on page 47

Manisha Choudhury

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www.employmentnews.gov.in46 Employment News 21 - 27 November 2015EDITORIAL

process.Every constitution gets newerand newer meanings and content fromthe manner in which and the people bywhom it is worked, the amendmentsthat are made, the potential and effectsit acquires from how its provisions areinterpreted by courts of the land and thepractices and conventions that growaround it in the actual process of itsworking.

Constitution of a country lays downthe basic structure of the political sys-tem under which the people are to begoverned. It establishes the mainorgans of the State - the legislature, theexecutive and the judiciary, definestheir powers, demarcates their respon-sibilities and regulates their relation-ships with each other and with the peo-ple. In a federal polity, the Constitutioninter alia also delineates, delimits anddistributes powers between the Stateorgans at the federal or union level onthe one hand and those at the level ofthe constituent units - States orProvinces etc. - on the other.The con-stitution of a country may also bedescribed as its basic or foundationallaw which ordains the fundamentals ofits polity and on the alter of which allother laws and executive acts of thestate are to be tested for their validityand legitimacy.

The Preamble embodies the funda-mental values, the philosophy and theethos on which our Constitution isbased and built and the aims which thefounding fathers enjoined the polity tostrive to achieve. These have been fur-ther elaborated in the chapters onFundamental Rights, DirectivePrinciples of State Policy andFundamental Duties of citizens. Takentogether, they really proclaim the funda-mental values and constitute the foun-dational principles of the Constitution.The preambular values of Sovereignty,Democracy, Republicanism,Secularism, Socialism, Justice, Liberty,Equality, Fraternity and, above all,Dignity of the Individual and Unity andIntegrity of the nation are supposed topermeate the entire Constitution. Adultfranchise, free and fair elections, distri-bution of powers between the Unionand the States etc. all flow from thePreamble.

Our Constitution has the distinctionof being the longest Constitution of theworld. Its text originally had 22 Parts,395 articles and 8 Schedules. Duringthe last 65 years, there have been 100

Constitutional Amendments; on anaverage, our Constitution has beenamended roughly every seven monthsor so. The number of Schedules hasgone up to 12. The number of articleshas increased to above 450. A few arti-cles and even full Parts have beendeleted and many new articles andseveral new Parts have been added.But, following the standard practice andto facilitate referencing, the existingnumber of articles, Parts or Chaptershave not been changed. Under theBasic Features Doctrine invented bythe Supreme Court some amend-ments/parts thereof have been struckdown as being violative of the basicfeatures/structure of the Constitution.Most recently, the 99th Amendmentproviding for the National JudicialCommission for selection of judges forthe Supreme Court and the High Courtshas been held unconstitutional on theground of its being violative of what theSupreme Court calls the primacy of thejudiciary in the matter of selection ofjudges and the independence of judici-ary under the Doctrine of BasicStructure.

We have given to ourselves a dem-ocratic Constitution with our variant ofrepresentative parliamentary democra-cy. There are some fundamental differ-ences and departures from the BritishParliamentary System and ourConstitution has several features of theUS Presidential System. India is aRepublic with an elected President asthe head of the State with all the exec-utive power of the Union vesting in him.Our Constitution tries to adopt a middlepath and bring about a synthesisbetween the U.S. Presidential systemwith Judicial Supremacy and the Britishmodel of sovereignty of Parliament. Wehave a written Constitution and thepowers, functions and jurisdictions ofeach organ are clearly defined anddelimited by the Constitution. There isno question of any organ being sover-eign or supreme. Neither Parliament issovereign nor the Supreme Court issupreme except in its own assignedsphere. We are governed by Rule ofLaw and Judicial Review of legislationand administrative action is an essen-tial part of Rule of Law. But, ourConstitution makers after great deal ofdiscussion and deliberation decided notto accept the American Due Process ofLaw and to dilute it by using the term 'inaccordance with law'. Our Constitutiondiscards the absolute judicial review ofthe U.S. model and provides for onlylimited judicial review protecting the law

making and constituent powers of theParliament.

In keeping with their aim of buildingan integrated Indian fraternity and aunited nation, the founding fathers pro-vided for a single citizenship of Indiawith all citizens equally and without anydiscrimination entitled to same rights allover the country subject only to someprotections in case of J&K, tribal areasetc., an independent integrated judici-ary with a single hierarchy of courts anda federal structure with distribution ofpowers between the Union and theStates and some devolution of powersto local self government institutions -Panchayats and Nagarpalikas. India isdescribed as a Union of States. At pres-ent it consists of 29 States and sevenUnion Territories. The latter are by defi-nition administered by the President i.e.the Union Government through anAdministrator.

The Union Parliament consists ofthe President and the two Houses - LokSabha and Rajya Sabha. Lok Sabha isthe popular House consisting of mem-bers directly elected by the peoplewhile the Rajya Sabha is the House ofthe States and consists of the repre-sentatives of States elected by the leg-islative Assemblies. The President iselected by the elected members of thetwo Houses of Parliament and the StateLegislative Assemblies. He is the con-stitutional head of the Republic inwhose name the government is carriedon by the Council of Ministers. TheCouncil of Ministers includes membersfrom both the Houses but is responsibleto the Lok Sabha. On losing the confi-dence of the popular House, theGovernment has to go. The system atthe level of States is largely similarexcept that the constitutional head is aGovernor who is appointed by thePresident/Union Government.

Indian polity is unique in manyways. It cannot be fully fitted into any ofthe existing moulds or models. It repre-sents a compromise between rigidityand flexibility in Constitution amendingprocedures. While certain provisionslike articles 2,3,4 and 169 can beamended like ordinary legislation by asimple majority in the two Houses ofParliament, others can be amendedonly under article 368 by the twoHouses by a special majority of 2/3rd ofthe members present and voting ineach House. In case of some provi-sions, ratification by not less than halfthe States is also required.

india's Constitution has been vari-

ously described as quasi-federal, feder-al with a strong unitary or pro-centralbias, federal in structure but unitary inspirit, federal in normal times but withpossibilities of being converted into apurely unitary one during Emergencyetc. The truth is that because it hasboth unitary and federal features, it is amix. It needs to be underlined that theConstitution does not use the word 'fed-eral' or 'federation' to describe Indianpolity. Also, the concept in theConstitution is that of Union of Statesand of Union-State Relations.

There are several other misconcep-tions about the provisions of ourConstitution which call for a sustainedeffort to make constitutional literacyobligatory for all citizens.

We are proud of our Constitution. Ithas proved to be the greatest force fornational integration and protection ofhuman rights. We can derive legitimatesatisfaction from the fact that some tem-porary aberrations notwithstanding, anddespite very difficult and turbulent times,we were able to work for such a longtime of some 65 years a fully democrat-ic Constitution in such a large and pop-ulous country with all it's variety anddiversity. Whatever problems we facedwere sought to be resolved within theframework of the Constitution, without itbreaking down, getting abrogated ortaken over by undemocratic forces. Asmany as 16 general elections for thelargest electorate on earth have beensuccessfully conducted under ourConstitution. Also, there have beenscores of other significant achievementsunder the Constitution. The last electionto Lok Sabha, returned a clear, massiveand decisive mandate in favour of aparty, an alliance and a leader.

Simultaneous reforms on variousfronts - economic, administrative, judi-cial, parliamentary, educational andothers are urgently called for. But, thehighest priority needs to be accorded toelectoral and political party reforms forwhich the most essential prerequisite iswidespread dissemination of constitu-tional education. Democracy, constitu-tionalism and rule of law are very ten-der plants and unless nursed withmeticulous care, they tend to witheraway fast.(The author is an expert onConstitution and is former Secretary-General of Lok Sabha. email: sckashyap@gmail.com. Viewsexpressed are his own).

WE THE PEOPLE...Continued from page 1

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