DV Rao on  India’s Constitutional System (Part-2)

dvrao
DV Rao, veteran revolutionary and an MP

This is Part-2 of the article.

Part-1 was published on Jan 26 :

https://countercurrents.org/2021/01/dv-rao-on-constitutional-system/

The essential feature of the Constitution is to provide with certain limited democratic rights with one hand, and take them back with another hand,” DV Rao analyses in his court statement.

“The Constitution grants all powers to the ruling classes to snatch away all freedoms, which are supposed to have been granted by it. It is the ruling classes and their favorites alone who are enjoying these freedoms…

“The balance sheet of the Constitution provisions regarding the freedoms for the people and the powers for the ruling classes to snatch them away, is nil, as far as the people are concerned.”

Referring to the Restrictive clauses that accompany every Fundamental Right, and that are regularly invoked, more so when people assert them as part of their struggles, he wrote:

“In order to organise themselves, the people should have freedom in regard to the first four points (Freedoms of speech, of assembling, forming into associations, of movement throughout India).  The system which does not permit such freedoms deserves to be called an autocracy. The people have every right to overthrow an autocratic system, whether a given Constitution permits them to do so or not.”

Com DV Rao,  Devulapalli Venkateswara Rao (Born 1917 June 1- died on 1984 July 12),  prominent communist revolutionary (CR) of India, had a political life that spans nearly five decades. Out of those years, he spent nearly 17 years in underground activities and about 5 years in various jails in his life and work as a communist revolutionary. All except two of these years were in post-1947 August India, and most of it after the 1950 Constitution arrived.

In this article, being published in two parts, to mark the January 26 Republic Day, we see some extracts from one of  DV Rao’s  classic books , People’s Democratic Revolution in India – An Explanation of the Programme.

In fact the book was DV Rao’s Court Statement ,  originally written in a Hyderabad prison during  1970-71, and  was  read out in full  as a Defence Statement, on  December  14 to 18, 1971,  in the Special Court that tried DV Rao, T. Nagi Reddy and 40 others in the famous  Hyderabad Conspiracy Case , the  first of its kind after 1947, and convicted them. They were  kept in detention from December 1969 to May ’72, after which they came out on conditional bail, confining them to their towns.  

It was a case framed the same way, under same sections (120-B, 121, 121-A, 122,123 of IPC), as by British colonial masters earlier. The govt. cited the Immediate Programme (20-plus pages document drafted by DV and adopted in a Convention  of  Andhra CRs in 1969 April), based its charge-sheet on it, and centered the case around it.  

Subsequently the Defence Statement was printed and reprinted several times in English and Telugu, as a book of about 320 pages. He updated it with a detailed Foreword to its 1981 edition.

 (The  Proletarian Line Publications5-5-1022/107, Mallikarjuna Nagar (North),  Chintalkuta, LB Nagar, Hyderabad-500 068.)  

He as a Member of the Loksabha during 1957-62, elected from Nalgonda (Telangana), watched and experienced the Indian democracy, and wrote extensively about it.

Having closely seen and experienced the Indian democracy’s police state, wherein freedom is at the mercy of the rulers, he jumped bail, and opted to work underground till he died in 1984 July at age 67.

For the current generation that is familiar with sedition cases, UAPA and NIA special Courts, and an undeclared emergency and fascism, these experiences and extracts are of great importance to know the constitutional roots of this autocracy. 

Together with TN , Tarimela Nagi Reddy (1917-1976), DV Rao in early 1975 founded the UCCRI-ML that was banned within two months as Emergency was proclaimed on June 26, and  fascism was unleashed, by Indira regime. UCCRI-ML ever since stood for a revolutionary mass line as different from right revisionist and left adventurist lines. DV Rao was its General Secretary from 1975 till he died at 67 in July 1984.

He was known for his unique role in leading the Telangana People’s Armed Struggle (1946-51), and was the youngest member of the then Central Committee of  the undivided Communist Party of India.

He upheld Marxism-Leninism-Mao’s Thought (MLM) and elaborated its Indian interpretation, by applying it to the realities of our country, and made them powerful and invincible weapons in the hands of the communist revolutionaries. He elaborated his views in his extensive writings published in English and Telugu.

More on his life and works, including on Telangana, is available in countercurrents.org, which published several articles on and by him. One link is given below:

https://countercurrents.org/2020/07/comrade-dv-rao-unique-role-in-indian-communist-movement/

***                                            ***

Now we go into extracts from Chapter 8 of the book, with the title below. Brief remarks are added in parentheses. All emphases added:

 

The Indian Constitutional System

In Part-1, it was pointed out how the Constituent Assembly was not sovereign, was not elected by adult franchise, had no representation of Leftists and the revolutionary forces, was formed and functioned under British army’s occupation, was studded with feudal princes and British loyalists and was based on the fundamental points formulated by the British….so as to defend the interests of British imperialism and India’s landlordism. It adopted the British imperialist laws, the IPC and CrPC of colonial era, the labor laws they framed etc as its own. Their administrative apparatus, the judiciary, armed forces, armed police etc., were seamlessly inherited by the State and kept intact.

As to Civil Liberties it showed: Fundamental Rights are all nullified by so-called restrictive clauses, used with inbuilt arbitrariness, thus placing them under the mercy of the rulers. Anybody can be arrested, kept in jail in the name of trial of conspiracy cases … can be eliminated through encounters…Preventive detention ( Article 22) and sedition laws, the same that were implemented by the British imperialists, were in force from day 1.. Civil Liberties were in practice denied to people … ESMA to curb workers..And only the forces, which are defending the present system of exploitation, are enjoying these rights of freedom. The Constitution compels the people, the opposition parties, groups and individuals to be at the mercy of the Government. (Sedition cases are launched against thousands of people particularly after  Modi-led BJP came to rule in 2014.)

Art 356-357, were used more than 100 times to dismiss elected state governments and impose President’s rule or governor’s rule…

“The Constitution perpetuates and defends the exploitation of the poor peasants and agricultural labourers, constituting 80 per cent of the rural populationand all the laboring classes by the foreign capitalists and the Indian big bourgeoisie…

“The people will never agree to the government robbing them of their civil rights and the Constitution defending it. Nor do they accept a Constitution which guarantees the right of monopoly ownership for the foreign imperialists, the big bourgeoisie over the industries, the mines and the lands. They can never co-exist with it…

“The Indian people demand a Constitution which guarantees unrestricted civil liberties to the people and hands over the industries, mines, land and all such wealth to them. It will be a Democratic Constitution, which can be realised by the people, by completing the People’s Democratic Revolution.”

Part-1 also exposed the Directive Principles that are not enforceable rights…They are just some ‘Principles’, to be kept in view…(They provide for) Village Panchayats that have no powers and funds worth the name, but are controlled by landlord classes…and they provide right of work and education to the people, maternity facilities, economic and educational facilities for the SCs and STs…all more on paper than in reality.

(Presently, the much-despised Farm laws are are part of modernization efforts mentioned under the principles. Fundamental duties were added later and they enable more repression. Present cow protection laws across India are also derived from Directive principles, Art 48 of the Constitution.)

The Directive Principles include international peace, but wars and jingoism are the ground reality.

 

***                           ***

Part 2

Part 2 begins with the Courts under India’s Constitutional system, about which there is lot of discussion in the country today. The roots of today’s rot can be seen in the excerpts of 1970 period.

Justice  Chelameswar and 3 others of the Supreme court , on 2018 Jan 12,  in a rare press meet castigated the functioning of the Supreme Court. Justice Kurian Joseph said: “ someone from outside was controlling the CJI Dipak Misra” and mentioned  “several instances of external influences ‘ on the working of the SC that has  judges “politically  biased. ”

Justice Lokur said “state is using sedition as an iron hand to curb free speech,” 70 cases were filed this year (2020) he added. And Courts were silent accomplices.

Senior Advocate Prashant  Bhushan was punished with  one rupee fine by the SC, for asserting that half of the last 16 CJIs were corrupt …he paid the fine but said he did not accept the verdict, and he appealed against it with a 444 page review petition.

Dushyant Dave, President of the Supreme Court Bar Association, recently wrote: “Since 2014, the Executive has had an almost total approval by the Court of all its Executive actions, the latest being the Central Vista case. One can only wonder: does the government ever falter?” (January 16, 2021,The Hindu.) Similar situation prevails in states and High Courts, as charged by AP CM in a letter, with details given  in an affidavit,  to the CJI recently. The Constitution and its working has been a silent witness if not an accomplice in all this. Thus the Courts are increasingly serving ruling parties, not merely the state.

“The using and misusing of the laws on the part of the ruling classes has become a headache to the judiciary…Even the judiciary, which is a part and parcel of the state apparatus, is not in a position to defend the government’s misuse of powers under the cover of the laws.”

Now the excerpts follow:

  1. Courts

India is having British system of Judiciary, just like the laws enacted during the British regime. All the Courts are functioning according to the Civil and Criminal Procedure Codes. As they are functioning within the limits of the present laws, they are useful only to the ruling classes, and the people have very little to gain by them.

The ruling classes claim that they introduced a big reform by separating the Judiciary from the Executive. It is quite an ordinary reform, which was in vogue in the former Nizam’s state.

Though there is separate Judiciary, Revenue Officials (the Collectors and the Tahsildars) are acting as magistrates for the Revenue laws, which cover 80 per cent of the rural population.

It has become quite a normal feature in our country that the police department takes up the role of Prosecutors as well as Judges and shoots the people to kill. The Courts have little power to interfere and investigate the atrocities of this department. In the name of ‘encounters’,  the Police are killing the revolutionaries and others, throughout the country.

(For instance, led by BJP govt, UP police tweeted in Dec 2019 that there were 5178 police “engagements”  in over two years in which 103 criminals were killed, and 1859 injured. Fearing that spree of encounters 17745 criminals surrendered or canceled their bails. In Kashmir there were over 10,000 alleged cases of forced or involuntary disappearances between 1989- 2009. Indian Courts and UN bodies took note of  this phenomenon. )    

We have numerous examples of tortures of revolutionaries, who are involved in this Conspiracy case, in the police lockup. The police is under no obligation to observe law. This being the situation, very little useful purpose will be served by the Courts.

(During 2018 alone, 1966 custodial deaths were reported to the NHRC, with few authorities ever punished. Such is the callousness of the system.)

The majority of the present judges and magistrates belong to the intellectuals from the landlord class. (Eminent Judges like Krishna Iyer went on record about class biases of judges, and of judgments.)

The overwhelming majority of the higher echelons of the judiciary are influenced by power politics of the State and the Centre. In their ideas and judgements they are influenced by the interests of the rich and the power politics of the ruling classes. Even the insignificant rights that the people are having from the laws are not being enforced due to this attitude of the judges and the magistrates. (This situation has visibly peaked in recent years.)

The litigation in the Courts is not within the reach of the poor people, as it is expensive and time-consuming. (It is all the more so these days…it costs millions or crores of rupees to approach the supreme court…and there are cases taking 10-20 years or more too.) It is impossible for the property-less to go to the courts. For the less propertied, it costs their entire property in the form of debts, and selling away the property. No one from the peasants and ordinary people can get justice in opposition to the landlords and the rich.

The present ruling classes are enacting laws which do not come under the jurisdiction of the courts, which are meant for suppressing their political opponents. When an Emergency is declared, and the Defence of India Act is enforced, nobody can seek remedy from any court, when arrested and such other action is taken. Trial is nominal in cases of arrest under the Preventive Detention Act. Section 151 of the Criminal Procedure Code, and the Police Acts give enormous powers to the government and the police to detain without trial at least for some time. Sections 107 and 147 are used only to harass the people.

Thus, the Home and Revenue departments are functioning as rival centres for the judiciary, reducing its powers to the minimum. The courts are forced to exhibit helplessness, when actions are taken to suppress political parties and people’s movements opposed to the ruling parties and classes.

Whether the system of British Judiciary is better than that of any other country is not a point of controversy. We are concerned whether it is in accordance with the interests of the common people or not. The people’s experience over a long period shows that it is not so.

We demand the abolition of the present Judiciary serving the interests of the ruling classes. It is necessary that the People’s Courts are established and justice is to be provided to the people in accordance with their interests, a speedy and inexpensive justice.

We have numerous examples of people coming forward to establish their own courts which provided justice to them during the periods of armed struggle of Telangana (1946-51) and of Srikakulam. These courts provided speedy and inexpensive trials, with judgements serving the interests of the people. The people are demanding such a system of the Judiciary.

The People’s Democratic state will analyse the experiences obtained by the People’s Courts, which emerged as a product of the revolutionary struggles, and will evolve a system of Judiciary, which provides free and speedy justice in accordance with their interests. We work for this.

 

***                ***

  1. Bureaucracy

The British imperialists had created an officialdom at all levels in order to implement their policies, and set up their own bureaucracy. The new ruling classes retained and extended it by renaming the Indian Civil Service into the Indian Administrative Service, and such other services equivalent to this (I.P.S., I.F.S. etc.). The administrative officers and departments have been increased in number. An ever-growing number of industries and undertakings in the Public Sector have increased the number of higher officers enormously.

The overwhelming majority of the upper strata of officialdom belong to the intellectuals of the landlord and the rich families. They function as the defenders of their class interests, as they are the persons who implement the laws. We know a number of district and taluq officers, who by not disposing of cases relating to the Tenancy Acts for years, had actually helped the landlords in dispossessing the tenants from their tenancy lands.

The same is the case with the armed forces. If they had served imperialism earlier, they are also serving their collaborators i.e., the big bourgeoisie and the landlords, after the Transfer of Power.

The British officers in the armed forces have gradually left the country. Those that are working in the country are trained by the imperialists. And they all belong to the richer classes, while the ordinary Jawans, Navy and Air-force men, belong to the poor under-employed classes. For them, the belly is more important than patriotism. The number of armed forces was increased enormously after 1960s and it is still swelling.

The same is the case with the armed police, the Central Reserve Police and the like which have been created on the model of the Malabar Special Police to suppress the people’s movements. Those people’s movements which cannot be suppressed by the state armed reserves are suppressed by the Central reserves. If they fail, the military is there to step in.

Thus, the new rulers have not only kept the British state apparatus — laws, the judiciary, the bureaucracy and the armed forces — intact, but have strengthened and extended them to suit their interests. This is the state which defends imperialism and landlordism, as against the people. It will never defend the interests of the people.

The People’s Democratic Revolution abolishes the present bureaucratic apparatus, creates officialdom and armed forces with revolutionary consciousness. They alone can act as weapons to defend the interests of the people, to defend revolution and the country.

 

***                       ***

  1. The Elections

(Electoral democracy is the only formal aspect that survives in India. Paradoxically, while electoral parties are key to that, and are the staple food for the media, they are not even once mentioned in India’s Constitution.

Before we go into this section (written in 1970), we mention the present situation that evolved over the last 50 years. The election system is anything but democratic. It is in practice, Moneyocracy, Mafiacracy, Dynasty-ocracy. 

We had D.K. Barooah,  the Congress President during Indira’s rule who gave the slogan  Indira is India,  during emergency, then opposed by Sangh parivar too. Now the trend is Modi is India; A cartoonist was arrested for his work on Modi.  Forget not, this is undeclared emergency. Top editors  had been replaced for criticizing Modi. Even State and city elections are held in his name.   

See the following class composition of the current Loka Sabha: Out of 539 MPs, there are 475 Crorepathies, meaning 88% crorepathies, as declared by them. Many of them are in fact worth Rs.100 cr or more. Out of 539 MPs, 233 declared Criminal cases against them.  Hence 43% have Criminal antecedents.

Rs 60,000 cr was spent by various parties, 45 % of that by BJP alone, and at a rate of Rs. 100 crore (Rs.1000 million) per each Loksabha seat, during the costliest-ever , 2019 Loksabha elections. As per a report by CMS, Rs. 12 to 15,000 cr out of that was given to voters directly to buy votes. It was double the 2014 expenditure of Rs 30000 cr, as per its estimates.

It is a fact that India has a few dynasties ruling various states and the centre too, not to speak of at lower levels.  “34 most powerful” such families were listed by theprint.in March 8, 2019. 

Almost all regional parties, including those from JK and northeast, (like DMK ADMK PMK TDP YSR TRS BJD LJP RJD SP SAD JKNC JKPDP JDU JDS RLD INLD)  those are explicitly so.

25% of MPs hailed from dynastic background. With scores of dynasties ruling India, it is a feudal democracy.

BJP and Modi harp on this citing Gandhi-Nehru dynasty Vs. Prime Ministers Vajpayee and Modi at the top. It covers up ground realities : In 1999, Congress had 36 dynastic MPs elected,  BJP had 31 from dynasties.  In 2009, Congress had 11% MPs from Dynasties and BJP had `12% MPs from dynasties.

In U.P, of the 51 political dynasties – 17 belonged to BJP, 15 belonged to Congress, 4 of BSP, besides that of Mulayam Yadav and others.

(From 1952, the bio-datas of 4807 Parliamentarians were analysed.  India Spend analysed data compiled by researchers of Harvard University and University of Mannheim, Germany. The above are among facts cited there.)

BJP has its own political Houses of Scindias, Mahajans , Mundes  etc. Most of the BJP CMs, Deputy CMs and Ministers have their Political Successors. BJP and Modi’s Cabinets have been  full of Dynastic Leaders like: Jasant singh, Piyush Goel, Ravishankar Prasad, Maneka Gandhi and  Varun Gandhi, Najma heptullah,  Kiran Rijiju, Jayant Sinha, Dharmendra Pradhan  are only some  examples.

BJP’s allies are  full of political dynasties.  Like Badals in Punjab, Thackreys in Maharashtra, Mufti’s family in Kashmir etc. (now these alliances are broken), Paswans in Bihar, Nitish Kumar’s family in Bihar , Lalbahadur’s in UP… So who is not a Dynast?

DV Rao wrote about role of class, money, caste, liquor and media in elections, all more glaring than ever today. See excerpts:

All the leading newspapers are owned by the monopoly capitalists. They serve the parties of the ruling classes. (They are partners manipulating India’s democracy.)

The landlords, who are economically the strongest class in the rural areas, are making common people subservient through land relations, money and grain lending. They are able to purchase influential persons from among the people, and securing votes through them. The same situation exists in towns.

The candidates are spending lakhs and crores of rupees in every general election. Thus, it is the rich who are able to contest the elections. Though a part of the amount is spent for election propaganda, the major amount is spent for purchasing the votes and the influential persons among the people.

The caste system is rooted in the towns, as well as in the villages. Every caste has its own rich strata. The common people belonging to each caste are linked with the rich in so many forms. They are connected with the amount spent in the name of development (of hostels, co-operatives etc.) of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes. They have a major share in the amount. Thus, they develop vested interests with the ruling classes for whom they secure votes and whom they serve.

Basing on the directives of British imperialism, the Constitution provides separate representation to the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes. They have their own share of representatives in the Parliament, the Legislatures, and the Panchayat Boards and even in the Services.

All these facilities are being enjoyed by the upper strata of these sections. Instead of abolishing the caste system by the abolition of landlordism, by the distribution of land to the landless, and developing them into economically independent people, the Constitution strengthens the caste system in the name of special facilities. Thus, the caste system is serving the ruling classes even in the elections.

Though the political parties are formally publishing their programmes, and to some extent, they are carrying on propaganda, the people are not voting in accordance with the programmes. On many occasions, the candidates especially the ruling party candidates are winning without any programmes and propaganda.

The people, instead of voting in accordance with the programme they choose, are voting according to the directives of the local landlords and heads of the village and castes. The same situation exists in the towns, where influential individuals and reformist trade union leaders having links with the rich are helping them. The Municipal administration is also contributing to such a situation.

Rural voters are playing a decisive role in providing a majority to the ruling parties, as the overwhelming majority of the voters live in the villages. As they are under the domination of landlords, it is the class of landlords that is playing the decisive role. The main reason for getting a sweeping majority by the ruling Congress is the support of the landlords in the recent mid-term elections (1969). It supported the Congress, because it thought that the Congress(R) alone is able to save it from being swept away in the flow of the agrarian revolution.

In addition to the Congress, all other parties won majority in the various constituencies, with the help of the landlords residing in the area. There are no political parties, which can mobilise voters without relying on one or the other section of landlords in a village. Those landlords, who are not with the ruling party for various reasons, are with other parties of their convenience.

People do not discuss political, economic and social problems facing the country during elections, nor are the political parties creating an interest in it through their propaganda. People themselves are not serious about elections. Casting a vote has become a ritual for them. (All this is more glaring today than ever with media’s  role and paid news phenomenon. )

They are participating in the elections because the political parties, groups and individuals want them to do so. The parties are deceiving them, saying that their problems are solved by casting a vote. Thus, they divert the people from revolutionary activities. Those without consciousness are voting, because their ‘elders’ are directing them to vote. Their voting has no relation to their issues, either political or economic.

We do not have the system of proportional representation which is in vogue in some of the capitalist countries. According to this, political parties can secure seats in Parliament and the Assemblies, in proportion to the votes they poll. The present system does not permit this. In a constituency, if a candidate gets one vote less than those of his rival, he not only loses his seat but his votes as well. This is an anti-democratic practice, with the help of which the Congress has been in power for the last 25 years, always as a minority party, polling less than 50 percent*1 votes. It had an unprecedented majority during the recent mid-term elections with only 43.64 per cent of votes polled.

(The winning party never polled 50% plus vote in the last 70 years. Thus it is always a minority that ruled.)

(In 2014, Modi-led BJP got 31.4 percent of polled vote, the lowest ever by a winning party in India. It is less than what Indira-led “ routed”  post-Emergency Congress got in  1977, 34.5 percent.  BJP that got 37.4 % of polled votes in 2019 claims a massive  and “record mandate.)

Violence is on the increase during elections. All those, propertied or otherwise, who stand against the dominant sections of landlords, are the victims of their violence.

Thus, the elections, as provided in the Constitution are meant to endorse the rule of the big bourgeoisie and the landlords once in every five years…

***                                     ***

 

  1. The Parliament, the Legislative Assemblies and the Panchayat Raj Institutions

We have already stated that in spite of having adult franchise, the election result always go in favour of big bourgeoisie and landlords. The members of Parliament, the Legislative Assembly and the Panchayat Boards belong to those classes, and some are elected with their help. The intellectuals amongst them are not above these classes. They are highly influenced by the political and economic theories of the imperialist countries. They want the government to follow policies in favour of one or the other imperialist power.

The Parliament contains the representatives of big bourgeoisie and landlords, the Legislative Assemblies are full of landlords, while the Panchayat Board institutions remain their pocket organisations. The so-called opposition parties, which claim to be either democratic or leftist, are neither representing democratic nor the leftist movement. They can neither openly support, nor oppose the ruling classes. They while away their time with spurious criticisms.

A situation has already developed, wherein it can be said that there is no difference of a considerable nature, between the ruling party and the opposition.

(It is more evident than ever –more so after 1990s reforms –  that all parties including the left  are basically one in implementing the LPG policies dictated by IMF, imperialists and their capital.)   

The Rajya Sabha, the Legislative Councils, the Panchayat Samithies and the Zilla Parishads are formed by indirect elections, though with an element of proportional representation (single transferable vote). Those defeated in the elections, in spite of spending huge amounts of money, and the favourites of the ruling classes fill the seats of the upper Houses. While the members are paid honorariums, the Houses are used to delay the legislative process. When the ruling party is in the grip of a crisis, its majority in the upper Houses is used to come out of the crisis. They serve no useful purpose. On the other hand, they have a reactionary role to play in all countries. Ours is no exception.

All this shows that in addition to the Indian Constitution, the Parliament and the Legislatures, which are meant for legislation in accordance with the former, are the centres for the representatives of the big bourgeoisie and landlordism. We cannot expect any useful legislation for the common man from these institutions.

***                           ***

 

  1. The Centre and the States

(The ruling BJP led by Modi has continued and intensified the process of centralization despite claims of “co-operative federalism”. It has increasingly usurped the powers of the states as evidenced by GST, police-NIA, and latest Farm laws. This situation is not sudden and has its roots in the Constitution and its functioning as can be seen below.)    

The Indian Constitution is supposed to be a Federal Constitution. In fact, it is unitary, in a federal form. We (could) call it Federal (if there was ) autonomy for the States, and the Centre has powers over only subjects like defence, foreign affairs, communications and foreign trade, and the States having powers over the residuary subjects. There is no such thing in our country. There are some powers for the Centre, some for the States, and some for both (concurrent). Hence, the Centre has more powers.

In addition to this, the States are financially dependent on the Centre (Loans, grants etc.). The Centre’s army, navy, air force and armed police (C.R.P etc.) are stationed in the States.

As a result, the States have neither autonomy nor individuality. They are performing the three main tasks viz., the collection of taxes, their spending, and suppressing the popular movements in the name of law and order.

Of late, the States are depending also on the Centre to suppress the people’s movements for which they are using the Central Reserve Police etc. and the army.

As far as the Centre is concerned, the President and the Central Cabinet exercise their powers with the support of Parliament. Though the Constitution provides extraordinary powers for the President, all of them are exercised by the Central Cabinet : To declare ‘Emergency’, to deprive the citizens of their civil liberties, and the States their powers, to dissolve State Assemblies, and to set up President’s rule, are some of them.

When the ruling classes are in crisis, from which they cannot come out within the framework of the Constitution, when the State Governments are unacceptable to the Centre, they suspend the Constitution and act as open dictatorship. In the name of war, they continued the ‘Emergency’ from 1962 to 1966. Meanwhile there was war with Pakistan also in 1965. In fact, war with China, defeat and everything connected with it, was over before the ‘Emergency’ was declared in 1962

All this shows that the ‘Emergency’ was meant not for the country’s defence, but their defence alone. (Now it is a case of perpetual and undeclared emergency, often invoked in the name of the nation. )

Starting from the dissolution of the Communist Government in Kerala in 1959, and setting up Governor’s rule, almost all the States have become the victims of this step…

To create a war situation, to declare ‘Emergency’, to suppress the people’s movements, to try to get out of the crisis in this process — this is the policy the ruling classes are implementing.

***                      ***

 

  1. Constitutional Amendments

There were 27 amendments ever since the Constitution came into force. (By 2020, the amendments crossed the figure of 100.)  It is clear, that the Constitution is not sacrosanct, and the ruling classes are changing it according to their needs. Their representatives and agents claim that the recent amendments are revolutionary, and a step forward in the direction of building a classless society. This is far from the truth….

(The reference is to Indira Gandhi regime’s Amendment regarding abolition of Privy Purses to the Princes. DV wrote:) It is not at all a big reform, when compared to the huge properties valued to the tune of crores of rupees left with them. Now there is an addition of 1,000 families of State and Central Ministers. These are nothing but princely families, being a dead weight on Indian society.)

 

All these features reveal the reactionary nature of the Indian Constitution. The experience of the last 20 years of its life only proves this. Though India is a republic, it is a member of the British Commonwealth, and part of the British Empire. It is today a dependent country to U.S. and the Soviet Union. It is a fraud on the people to call it a Democratic Constitution, which is framed according to the directions of British imperialism, and which is a shield for the interest of the big bourgeoisie, and the landlords, in league with imperialism.

The essential feature of the Constitution is to provide with certain limited democratic rights with one hand, and take them back with another hand.

***                     ***

 

  1. The Constitution of the People’s Democracy

After analysing the various aspects of the Constitution, we have come to the conclusion that it is a shield to defend the interests of the big bourgeoisie and the landlords, in league with imperialism. Therefore, we declare it to be our aim to replace the present Constitution with a People’s Democratic Constitution. It can be done only by a victorious People’s Democratic Revolution…

Some are demanding another Constituent Assembly on the basis of adult franchise. As long as imperialism, big bourgeoisie and landlordism dominate our country, any Constitution framed within this framework can neither be a democratic one, nor be in accordance with the people’s interests.

A new Constitution which is framed after the culmination of People’s Democratic Revolution, will be completely democratic and in accordance with the wishes and interests of the people, because it is based on the abolition of imperialism, big bourgeoisie and landlordism…

The main points in the People’s Democratic Constitution are as follows:

  1. It abolishes imperialism in all its forms.
  2. It abolishes landlordism.
  3. It abolishes collaborationist big bourgeoisie.
  4. It assures adult franchise to all above 18 years of age.
  5. There will be a Parliament and Legislatures at the Centre and State levels. There will not be an Upper Chamber.
  6. All political, economic and military relations with the Commonwealth will be abolished.
  7. All unequal treaties with imperialist and social imperialist countries, on the one hand, and small countries like Nepal, Bhutan and Sikkim, on the other will be abrogated.
  8. There will be freedom of religion and equal rights for minorities.
  9. India will be a Republic of voluntarily united nations, based on the right of self-determination.
  10. A Constituent Assembly, elected by revolutionary classes, based on adult franchise will frame the People’s Democratic Constitution.

We are firmly of the opinion that a Constitution based on the above main points can alone consolidate People’s Democratic Revolutionary gains, implement and complete its programme, and prepare the people for socialist construction. We strive for this.

 

We know that the present Constitution does not permit this to happen. It is a historical truth that no Constitutional system, in vogue in a given time, has permitted any revolution to materialise.

In the past, it was not possible for the exploiting class to come into power after overthrowing another exploiting class without a revolution (Feudalism in place of slavery, bourgeoisie in place of feudalism). In the present also, it is impossible for the present Constitution, which is a shield for defending the interests of the ruling classes, to concede the right of making a revolution by revolutionary classes.

It is also a historic truth that once conditions are matured for a revolution, neither Constitutional system nor the armed forces could prevent it from consummation. This applies to our country as well. The People’s Democratic Revolution will succeed in our country, in spite of the Constitutional system and brutal repression by the armed forces of the ruling classes.

(The writer was a mediaperson )


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