26th November, Constitution Day, also called as National Law Day. Celebrated with much pomp in the government organizations spread across the length and breadth of the country. It's a day when the top boss in the office administers the recitation of The Preamble, and exhorts the employees to adopt the noble ideals of the Constitution in our day-to-day lives. Day when the doyens in the field promote the principles of Justice, Liberty and Fraternity, and appeal to the masses to walk on to the values enshrined in the Constitution. It was the same day in 1949 when the Constitution of India was adopted by the scholarly members of The Constituent Assembly. That day, a priceless seed was sown into the soil of our motherland – Bharat, which was supposed to be grown into a utopian tree adorned with the tempting flowers of peace & harmony, dazzling leaves of secularism and morality, strong roots of healthy democracy, firm stem of welfare society, and the palatable fruits of equality & freedom.
But 74 years down the line in 2023,
have we actually watered that utopian tree well, or have we let it go dry with
our dereliction of duties and negligence of responsibilities? Alas, certainly
not! Every single day I meet a lot of people out there who are absolutely
unaware of even the most basic tenets of the Indian Constitution. And you
know what the worst part is? They are earning six-figure salaries a month, are tech-savvy,
and hail from erudite well-to-do families. Suppose that’s the case with the upper 5%
of the population. How on earth can we expect that those who haven’t got
the luxuries of education, tech resources and financial assets will even have a modicum of idea of it!
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| Credits: AC Creative House |
As long as the exemplary ideals jam-packed in the Constitution of India won’t make a place into the minds of common people, and won’t fit into their routine walks of life - we can’t (in fact, shouldn’t) expect the masses to abide with them. As long as a huge chunk of the population of India won’t become aware of the height of liberal luxury they have got in the form of the Constitution, hardly any of them would be able to capitalize on it, and as a result, most of them will keep on suffering and bearing the brunt of the torments imposed by the strong few. I know well that a separate PhD and thorough study might be done on every single line of the Constitution, neither it’s everyone’s cup of tea to interpret the meaning of not-so-digestible law jargons; True that not everyone has prowess in the intricacies of this field, or has their forefathers from the law background, or is an attorney/Magistrate/ govt services aspirant - still, they must at least have some basic idea of it. (Though, neither they are supposed to study the Constitution of India to its very core, nor do they need to do it completely on their own. The onus lies on the govt to come up with an effective nationwide campaign for the same.)
Yes, a bright scientist, a
financially prudent CA or banker, a marquee businessperson, an expert
farmer, or anyone working at an executive post in a high-rise corporate
building is not assumed to be well-versed with law. But at least, to the very
minimum, they should have a brief idea about every single term of the Preamble, the Fundamental Rights, and the Fundamental Duties. That’s it! All of this will hardly make 5% of the Constitution, but will
actually have the potential to groom the personalities of over 50% of the population
of India and bring in up to 200% more happiness and development in their
everyday lives.
The Government needs to take this task
on a mission mode and do everything it can to promote basic awareness related
to the subject matter. I know, the school textbooks of civics and polity teach profoundly
about this, but unfortunately, there is some serious lacuna in the overall
education system that people don’t remember most of the things from their
textbooks the day their final exams are over. And this isn’t just limited to
these subjects or school days but has been a problem with subjects
in college/any other training as well. And as a reason of this, the overall
quality of the Indian education system has been miserably ordinary even after 76
years of independence.
If this goes well - the suffering of oppressed will automatically come down, rate of crimes will see a sharp decline, number
of religious fanatics and radicalized groups will witness a declining trajectory,
sheer peace and harmony will be proudly promoted in the country, the nation
will move at a phenomenally faster pace towards the race to become a developed one, interreligious and intercaste hostilities will come down to a new low, and
ultimately the societies will start making unbelievable strides towards becoming
healthy and happening places to live.
As long as the people of our country will keep on treating Constitution Day like any other ordinary day, Bharat will keep on vacillating between the extremes of underdevelopment and oppression.
Jai Hind! Greetings on the Constitution Day!