FARM LAWS: LETS FACE THE REALITY

FARM LAWS: LETS FACE THE REALITY

   March 05, 2021       Ankur Jangra

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In the previous part, we have already discussed the history of our agriculture. I would request in case you haven't read the previous part yet, please have a look because the things you will come across in this blog won't make any sense unless you have a fair idea about the history of our agriculture.

Part1: FARM LAWS: PROLOGUE- HISTORY OF INDIAN AGRICULTURE

Before we move on to the analysis of these laws, a few questions and concepts are needed to be addressed.

Contract Farming

It is a type of farming wherein two parties form an agreement contract with each other for carrying out the business. One party is obviously the farmer(or Farmer Producer Organizations)  and the other is a private company. So before the start of business few aspects would be talked about like what will the amount of procurement, the quality of the produce, the time period for the procurement, what if the quality is compromised, what type of material/grain to use, and many more such. For example, when you move into a rented apartment, there is execution of an agreement between you and the owner, and the contract has details about the rent, deposit, furniture(if any), the tenure of the contract, etc. The same is the scenario in all the business contracts too, just the parameters keep varying. 

Farmer, Middlemen, and the APMC triad

In the previous part we read about the middlemen, who they are, and what do they do. We even read that in the states of Haryana and Punjab they range fairly from 30-35 in percentage, and have also contributed to the agricultural development of the two states. But we do have some questions unanswered:

1. Have the middlemen contributed to the development of agriculture in PN & HR?
   The answer is Yes. The reason they were born was due to the failure of the government to provide certain services and infrastructure requirements needed throughout the stage of production and procurement. When there was no formal source of agricultural credit, it was they who had lent money to the poor farmers. Even today when we have so many branches of the banks present in villages, yet a poor farmer prefers a moneylender who in this case is usually the middlemen. There are many reasons for it as well which I would cover in a different blog on banking.
   
   

2. Are there any shortcomings of the middlemen system?
   The answer is Yes. Knowing the huge population of middlemen in the agricultural system of HR & PN, they are actually one of the (not only) reasons for the protests.  The middlemen had an upper hand since they acted as the source of finance for produce as well as the source of sale of the produce. There were occasions when the crops had failed due to multiple reasons like drought, heavy flooding, etc, and remember who was the source of credit? The one who finances also charges a rate of interest for the same too. So in this case the poor farmer is trapped in the vicious cycle of debt and poverty because the crop produce is the only way the farmer can repay the debts. 

Why are the farmers of only northern states protesting? There are few parameters on which the answer depends:

• The number of people employed in other states in comparison to PN & HR is quite low since many alternate employment options do exist. For example, in the states of Maharashtra, Gujarat, and Karnataka, sectors other than agriculture like Services(IT, Banking), Manufacturing, etc exist. Whereas in states of HR & PN, most of the people are employed in agriculture only.
  
  

• The agricultural pattern/system of other states is quite different than PN & HR. The number of middlemen in rest of the states in comparison to PN & HR is quite less making the APMC system is not that functional and famous(it doesn't mean it doesn't exist).

So, the following are the laws about which the story is all about:

1. Farmer's Produce Trade and Commerce( Promotion and Facilitation) bill, 2020: The bill permits the farmers to carry out inter as well as intra state trade for their produce beyond the physical premises of APMC mandis. Earlier, the farmer couldn't trade or sell his/her produce in APMC markets of other states, but now that won't be a constraint. Remember we talked about a tax that was charged on selling the produce at the APMC, well now if a farmer is say trading with some other buyer(not the government) then, the tax amount won't be charged this time. Farmers could now trade throughout the geography of the country and not restricted to the native states.
   
   But some fear that these provisions are a threat to the existing MSP system. Its true that if the farmer will get an opportunity to trade with other buyers and save the tax and the debt trap of middlemen then but obvious, he/she won't prefer the APMC yards to sell the produce. This would hurt the pockets of the middlemen as well as the state governments too.
   
   

2. Farmer's (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services bill, 2020: The bill introduces a framework of contract farming through an agreement between the farmer and the buyer before the beginning of the business. It enlist all the details that would be listed in the contract which both the parties would sign.
   
   The farmers fear that this bill  would eventually cost them their lands and huge amount of exploitation by the big private players. But why do they think so? Reason being, there's a provision that under the circumstance of any dispute between both the parties post execution of the agreement, either of the parties can move at max to SDM i.e Sub-Divisional Magistrate( a government official) for resolution of the dispute. There is no provision for moving to the courts.
   
   They also fear that incase the quality/quantity of the produce is not matched as per the provisions agreed during signing of contract, the buyer might not either purchase or pay them less as than what expected. But that's actually not true. The bill clearly specifies that during the execution of the agreement, a clause of minimum amount at which the buyer will have to buy the produce does exist for cases like this only.
   
   

3. Essential Commodities( Amendment) Bill, 2020: As per the bill, the government has listed certain essential commodities like cereals, potato, pulses, onion, edible oil seeds, and oil, whose supply and prices would be regulated by itself only during times of war, famines, extra-ordinary price rise, or natural calamities. This amendment has been brought to attract the private investment into the farming sector. As the government would only interfere during extreme times, this gives the private companies a chance to increase the stock of grains or in other terms hoard them.
   
   Now a very strong argument has been put forward by the farmers in this regard, that this might distort the trade if big private firms enter into picture. The big private companies have capital and infrastructure to store the grains for long durations that too in good conditions, so eventually, if they just keep on increasing the stocks and not release/sell them into the markets, it would lead to shortage of products in the market which eventually would lead to inflation of the prices of products. And rest is the pure economics, one who controls the supply, can control the demand, and monopoly in this aspect would harm not just farmers but also the consumers who would eventually have to buy the products at high rates.
   
   

Now that we have a fair idea about these farm laws, the question still remains,do we need them? The answer is YES. We do need them but with some modifications. Giving a confidence and assurance to the farmers that MSP won't be done away with and it would be farmers choice to sell the crop either to the private companies incase they get a better price there or else, a system of APMC will always be present with MSP attached. Role of Juidiciary in Dispute Resolution between the parties should be added. It is right of every citizen to move to courts to get resolution of their disputes and this should also be added to the bill related to the contract farming. Government should act as a Regulator and the hoarding levels could be relooked into by the parliamentary committees, so that over hoarding by a particular private entity doesn't take place. 

One of the major reason that the laws have created a havoc in country is that they weren't duely scrutinized by the parliamentary committees and they were passed in a haste, when there was no opposition to oppose. The parliamentary committees play a major role in development of a law, they take adivces from the unions and civil societies for whom the law has been made. Its very important to do a ground level analysis and take into confidence the parties(not talking about political party) that are going to get affected. Its not that government hadn't done any research before passing of these bills, but it seems they lacked in taking into confidence the beneficiaries. 

Given that few changes are taken care off, the laws should remain to exist because these are once in a decade reforms. Many governments have been trying to pass these changes since decades but couldn't due to political constraints. The government should focus on promoting more and more Farmer Producer Organizations so that their bargaining power increase during contract farming. Just like the financial advisor(brokers) cannot be neglected in functioning of the stock markets, so can't the middlemen/Arhatiyas/Intermediaries/Bicholias be. They have shown they have good service providing skills and government should use them as potential resources. From years, our governments have been procuring wheat and rice exceeding the stock limits and now they are just rotting away in godowns. Government knows that it has been unsuccessful in improving the state of our agriculture( corruption being a major reason) and now private has been given a chance to work for the same. Private companies have huge capital which they can invest for development of the state of our agriculture. For those who think private companies just exploit and think of their profits, then just think where most of us are employed today. There are multiple sectors where the entrance of private sector has worked in favour too. Nevertheless, government should also make sure the farmers being poor aren't exploited and create a fair business environment that favours both the parties and eventually the nation.

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Farm Laws: Prologue- History of Indian agriculture

Farm Laws: Prologue- History of Indian agriculture

   February 28, 2021       Ankur Jangra

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In the month of September 2020, three major bills were passed in the parliament which are very much in news apparently. This blog aims to critically analyze the three farmer laws in and out, and a way ahead that could be possible to resolve the deadlock. This one is going to be a little long and in multiple parts, so hold on until the end.

Following were the bills that were passed related to the farmers and our agriculture system: 

1. Farmer's Produce Trade and Commerce( Promotion and Facilitation) bill, 2020

2. Farmer's (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services bill, 2020

3. Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill, 2020

But, directly getting to know about these bills won't make any sense until and unless one has a clear picture about the history of the Indian agriculture system. So let's begin from the scratch...

State of our Agriculture System until now

Agriculture in India started way back around 9000 BCE. As humanity evolved, so did agriculture. Multiple crops came into existence gradually. Until the Europeans came, India was one of the biggest exporters of many food crops and was also known as the land of spices. But, things changed after the debut of European players. They destroyed the Indian agriculture system tactically. One such instance was when our farmers were forced to grow crops like indigo on most of their land, which eventually reduced the fertility of the soil. The exploitation was such that from being an exporter of the best cotton in the world, we became a net importer of the same by the time of our independence. And similar was the case for most of the crops which our farmers grew.

We all are aware that an economy is based on few sectors say Primary, secondary, tertiary, and a few more. And agriculture covers a major part of the primary sector. When we got our independence, approximately 76% of our population was employed in agriculture, wherein the state of our agriculture was not good. So basically, back then we were a poor agrarian economy. While we were trying hard to uplift our people during the early years of our democracy, we didn't know that we also have 3 big wars waiting ahead. The Indo-Pak war of 1947, Indo-Sino war of 1962, the Indo-Pak war of 1965, and few added famines impacted us severely. There was a time when we were in such a position that we just had few weeks of grain stocks left to feed our people. Eventually, the government had to import a huge amount of food grains from the US. It's not that we imported for the first time, but the amount in which we did, reflected the grave situation we were into. We usually borrow money for fulfilling our secondary shortages but imagine a situation when you actually have to borrow for feeding yourself and your family. Well, it was the same feel our government had back then. India has had a history that whenever something goes wrong a  wave of change runs through, and something sort of this was lying ahead- the GREEN REVOLUTION.

GREEN REVOLUTION

The humiliation India faced at the international level led to the role out of the GREEN REVOLUTION backed by Mr. M.S Swaminathan(also called the father of the Indian green revolution).  Under it, farmers were given High Yielding Variety(HYV) seeds for Rice and Wheat. Parallelly, the fertilizers were also brought into the picture for better and quick results for intensive production. The Ganga Yamuna belt of North and Northwest India was put onto focus as an experimental first phase of the green revolution. 

The pivot of the green revolution was the system of Minimum Support Price(MSP), the acronym which has been buzzing around for some time now. The government knew that nobody would participate actively until some monetary guarantee is also promised to them. That's where MSP helped. MSPs are an assurance that the government will intervene if market rates fall below that threshold, thereby helping avoid distress sales. It is nothing but a minimum assured price which the farmer would get for its crop no matter what. Farmers could avail MSP, only when they sold their crops at the Agricultural Produce Market Committees (APMCs) where a particular amount of tax was also charged for the sell-off. The first crop for which MSP was fixed was wheat at Rs. 54 per quintal. Gradually, more crops were added to the list of MSP. Few years down the line, the government got the results that it expected. The production went up and stocks were starting to rise. The income of the farmers which had been poor for ages now saw a quick rise. 

But was that rise in income uniform in every part of our country? Obviously Not. The fruits of the green revolution were not replicated in other parts of the country. Therefore a divide was generated between the GR belt and the rest of the Indian states. This divide also affected the economic capacity of farmers of our country. Later on, MSP was also given on multiple crops but it wasn't that much in comparison to wheat and rice. This is a major reason that farmers of the GR belt grew rice and wheat majorly. 

The Game of Fertilizers

Another ill effect that later came into realization was that the fertilizers were used more than needed. Fertilizers were a combination of NPK(Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Potassium) in a ratio of 4:2:1 as per the requirement of Indian soil. A down-to-earth report stated that presently, the NPK ratio is 6.7:2.4:1 for most of the states whereas for Haryana and Punjab the ratio is 27.7:6.1:1 and 31.4:8:1 respectively which is very huge in comparison to the required one. The fertilizers are meant to be used in a required ratio and if they aren't, it can lead to multiple ill effects. Apparently, the states of Haryana and Punjab are on the verge of depleting their groundwater table, the soil structure has been disrupted and the soil salinity is at its peak. Yes, the fertilizers did help the farmers to grow the crops at a good rate and make themselves financially stable but not in the long run due to a lot of environmental impacts.

The MiddleMen

Whenever the farmer has harvested his/her produce, they could sell it off in the APMC system where they could avail MSP for their crop. But the system in the past few years hasn't been as simple as it looks. Most of the farmers in India are poor and marginal having landholdings less than 1-2 hectares. These poor farmers aren't able to fulfill all the infrastructure/capital requirements needed for farming (say a tractor, financing, cold storages, etc). This was the reason there came up a section of people called Middlemen AKA Intermediaries AKA Bicholiyas AKA Arhatiyas. Middlemen did the job of helping the farmer sell his/her produce in the APMC market. They would provide services to the farmers in multiple forms. Because most of the farmers were poor, they couldn't afford to buy their own tractors, trolleys, etc. 

So are these middlemen illegal? 

No. They are completely legal and are registered by the state government for individual APMCs. They facilitate the transaction between the farmer and the actual buyer(which could be government or even a private player). 

What is the scale at which arhatiyas exist?

The middlemen exist in all the states but vary in numbers. Say if 100 people are employed in agriculture in each state, then for most of the states, middlemen range from 8-15 out of those 100 approximately whereas for haryana  and Punjab, they range from 30-35.

States	Middlemen
Punjab & Haryana	30-35%
Other states	8-15%

                                                         

Therefore, a significant share of agricultural income goes to the middlemen as well. 

By now, you might have got a raw idea about the agriculture system in our country. Explicit focus has been given to the system of Haryana and Punjab to understand the controversy related to the farms laws. The green revolution was a boon to the indian economy, if it hadn't happened, our people would have actually starved to death. Some lacunaes did exist like the huge price parity on MSP (Rice/wheat and other crops), usage of fertilizers in inadequate ratios, etc, but one must not forget that a poor person won't think about the consequences but rather would focus on feeding the starving stomach first. Thats exactly what our government had done by kickstarting the green revolution. A system of APMCs was established which was actually needed back then. Today if the government of India has plenty of stocks of wheat and rice, it is courtsey the green revolution. Also, if the middlemen wouldn't have existed, the poor farmers produce couldn't have got the due recognition. Now, there might be more such questions like 

1. Why the farmers of only northern states are protesting majorly?

2. Did middlemen destroy or enhance the mandi system?

3. For some, are the farm laws good? For some, are the farm laws bad? 

4. What exactly are the provisions of the farm bills?

5. What is contract farming? 

6. Where are the private players?

We will understand in detail about all the above questions in next part of the blog. Explicit focus now would be on the three laws, enough of beating around the bush. Incase, there are some other points you want the light to be thrown upon, just mention in the comment or in the contact form.  Part 2 to be out soon. Until then stay tuned.

 

 

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JUDICIARY: AWAITING REFORMS

JUDICIARY: AWAITING REFORMS

   January 23, 2021       Ankur Jangra

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"JUSTICE अर्थात न्याय"... Today let's just walk through an important institution of this country that is responsible for upholding justice i.e the JUDICIARY. Indian Judiciary has shown some exceptional character by giving certain landmark historical judgements like the Basic structure doctrine, decriminalization of section 377 and 497, office of CJI under the ambit of RTI and many more.

No doubt it truly has been the guardian of the constitution and the saviour of the common people since ages but now, its in dire need of reforms. Reforms for reducing the huge number of cases pending, eradicating the corruption, timely filling of vacancies of judges and advocates, gender sensitization of judges and improving women participation in the judiciary, clear criteria and transparency for the appointment of the judges, strengthening the technological infrastructure, and apparently an internal reform to acknowledge the constructive criticism positively.

Just like we have three levels of government( centre, state, local), similarly, we have lower courts which are Subordinate courts, Session/District courts, High courts, and the topmost in the hierarchy, the Supreme court. Talking about the number of judges, a report by the law ministry states that India has 19 judges per 10 lakh people on average, which means 1 judge is responsible for giving justice to 52,600 people. Isn't it unfair? The supreme court of India currently has 34 judges including the Chief Justice of India(CJI) of which only two are women. Also, there have been only 8 women who were appointed as a judge to the Supreme court whereas there hasn't been a single woman CJI until now. Filtering down to the high court, only 7.2% of the judges are women whereas the high court of 6 states(Manipur, Meghalaya, Telangana, Tripura, Uttrakhand, Patna[Bihar]) don't even have sitting women judges. Something which is always in talks is the Collegium system of judiciary. The collegium consists of the CJI and four seniormost judges of the Supreme court, which is responsible for the appointment and transfers of the judges. The decision of the collegium is final and there are no other set criteria as such. This brings out the opaqueness in the appointment system of the Indian judiciary.

A few months back, an RTI application towards the famous PM CARES fund was rejected by the government stating that the fund does not come under the ambit of RTI. People fairly criticized this move saying that it was their right to know how and where their money was spent. When people start using tools like RTI to keep a check on the government, indeed the country is developing. But parallelly, don't you think, it's our right to have information about our judicial system too? Since, the RTI has come into force, except for the recent judgement( wherein SC quoted that office of CJI is a public authority and it does come under the ambit of RTI), Judiciary has tried to immune itself from the act, quoting it as a threat to its independence. Often it's transparency is questioned when the collegium system is talked about. The judiciary must understand that there does exist a state between transparency and opaqueness i.e translucency, at least towards which it must start the journey. And we must understand that as much as the politicians, bureaucrats and other government officials are answerable to the common citizens of this country, so is the judiciary. The independence of the judiciary has to be respected but indeed it must not forget that its there to serve the people of this country. 

The history is witness that the people of this country belonging to different sections have come together to stand against many rules and regulations of multiple governments which they feel won't be in their or country's favour. May it be India against corruption campaign led by Anna Hazare, the controversial citizenship amendment act or even the current farm laws, people have come forward to show their support to multiple protests that have taken place( or basically let governments know that हमे फर्क पड़ता है). There's a possibility that either of us might also have been a part of a protest too. But, have you ever heard about people protesting to see some changes in our judicial system? Try googling, it's possible that even google would let you down this time. Fact is that people who have come forward are some of the lawyers or few activists but there has never been a protest at a huge level.

Democracy runs on 3+1 organs viz Legislature, Executive, Judiciary and the most important public participation. The fathers of our constitution added a basic right to assemble and protest peacefully to the big book. Because even they knew, public participation is one of the most vital aspects of decision making. The right to protest acts as a mechanism for checks and balances towards the governmental decisions and we the people of this nation have used this tool very effectively towards both Executive and Legislature except for the fact, somehow we forgot that Judiciary is also an important organ of the government. One must not forget that not everyone commits a crime but most of us are the victims many times. And we must not forget that a judge hears both the accused and the victim wherein you will also be a part of the judicial cycle. So avoiding it and moving ahead is not a solution. 

A phrase which our parents and grandparents usually said to us, "बेटा कोर्ट कचहरी से जितना दूर रहो उतना फायदा", is a harsh truth but we must not forget that just like every human has flaws, the people sitting in our courts are also the humans. The system indeed will overhaul someday. In spite of everything, don't forget few words from one of my favourite movie Jolly LLB 2, "आज भी हिंदुस्तान में जब कहीं दो लोगो के बीच झगड़ा होता है या विवाद होता है, तो एक दूसरे से क्या कहते है पता है?  I will see you in court".

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FITNESS

FITNESS

   November 21, 2020       Ankur Jangra

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Make a workout routine, eat healthy, make sure you are adding breathing exercises too, take adequate amount of sleep and most importantly, stick to the plan.

"Physical fitness is a state of health and well-being, and more specifically, the ability to perform aspects of sports, occupations, and daily activities." Well, that's how a Wikipedia definition looks like. But, fitness is not just about physical well-being, but also more about mental and emotional fitness, which we usually tend to ignore. It's a complete package which we need to pay attention to. 

What does it take to keep yourself fit? Good food + Good sleep + Good Workout. Trust me, each component has equal weightage. 

• Good Food: A food which is apt in nutritional value which means adequate consumption of Carbohydrates, Proteins, fats, minerals and vitamins.

• Good Sleep: Averagely 7 to 8 hours of sleep 

• Good Workout: Atleast an hour of physical activity(anything which you love to).

Some Facts:

A World Health Organization study says that every 1 in 4 people in the world do not workout on daily basis and parallely Mintel agency report states that 64% of indians too do not workout on daily basis. These are alarmingly dangerous figures. 

Myths and False assumptions over Indian diet:

I have heard many people blaming our so called "desi" diet as a faulty one. Trust me, 5 years back, I too believed the same.  But later on, I realised that it's not actually our diet which is faulty but our lifestyle which has been degraded over the years. I have a grandmother who is in her 80s now. She can still wash her clothes, manage her food, work with the plants in the garden, eat anything I offer her and still stay fit. If you observe, you will definitely find many similarities in our grandparent's diet. Well how is it? Did they eat something different than what we call the typical "desi diet"? No. The only difference is that they used to work hard the whole day, either it was the farm or any household chore. So why do we blame the same diet? Have you ever given a thought to our current lifestyle? Thanks to internet, everything is just a click away. If we ponder a little, we will realise that it's the amount of physical activity we lack to put in. 

Workout doesn't mean that it's mandatory to get to a gym and start lifting heavy weights. Nope. A workout has to be something which you enjoy. It can be either gym, any sport say football, volleyball, badminton, running or cycling(and many more). Options are as many as you like. It also varies as per individual's age, body type, metabolism, etc. You cannot expect a person in fifties to exercise like the one in twenties. All that changes is the type and numbers of hours one trains. 

FITNESS DURING CORONA & SOME LEARNINGS:

 

Since the world has been struck by the novel coronavirus, things have changed, and so has the definition and importance of fitness. During the early days of lockdown, it was difficult for most of us to adjust to the new normal. May it be irregular sleep cycles, eating habits, or our fitness routine, everything was disturbed. Well, I also went through the same. So one day, I gave a thought to what was going wrong and came to a conclusion that, everything was near about the same except for the fact that my workout was missing. It was just a couple of days since I resumed my workout, I started to feel good. I was able to sleep well, eat well, did not have a bloated stomach, and the most important thing, I felt lively.

I have had the same experiences before as well. I have observed that the days I am working out, I am a very different individual. My personality is different, my decision making is smart, I am able to concentrate more on my studies, my health is good and most importantly, I am able to sleep as good as a kid. I remember when we were kids, we used to play a lot, well we could play the whole day to be frank. And that's something what we need to recollect. We need to get back that kid who used to wait for 5 pm in the watch to set out and play the best games of his/her life. A daily workout not only gives you a good physical outlook but also gives you an implicit confidence that you carry with your personality.

Today, the world is aging, the climate is getting changed drastically, the pollution levels are continuously increasing, the mean sea levels are on rise and health problems are growing on daily basis. We need to take a pause and think about it now. They said 2020 was a bad year and fortunately it's about to end. Now is the right time to start preparing for our new year resolutions which we can't afford to lose this time. Make a workout routine, eat healthy, make sure you are adding breathing exercises too, take a good sleep and most importantly, stick to the plan. Remember one thing that it's a slow and gradual process, and quitting won't speed it up.  

Rest, the quote sums it all.

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PREAMBLE

PREAMBLE

   October 22, 2020       Ankur Jangra

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Preamble basically is a short summary of our big book. Since the big book is way too technical and can't be easily understood by every individual, Preamble helps us understand what the constitution of India means, and what its basic principles are.

Before you begin, I request you to go through some lines shown in the image above. Read at least twice. For those who aren't still aware, those are the same lines that we have gone through in our school days. Yes, it is the Preamble. I still remember, while going through the index page of my NCERTs, I used to see these big bold lines. I never actually paid much attention to it. Thought these were just a few lines meant to increase the number of pages in tiny NCERTs. Fortunately, now that I have been able to understand the essence of preamble a little, I would like to enlighten you through the same. But before that, I request you to read my previous blog on "Indian Constitution: The Big Book" to relate it better.  

The preamble was based on the objectives resolution developed by our first prime minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. Originally, the words SOCIALIST, SECULAR, and INTEGRITY were not part of our preamble. These were added in 1976 during the era of emergency. In my previous blog, I had mentioned that preamble is a part of our constitution. Now one might think, what was the need of having it given that we already had such a bulky constitution. So Preamble basically is a short summary of our big book. Since the big book is way too technical and can't be easily understood by every individual, Preamble helps us understand what the constitution of India means, and what its basic principles are. 

The preamble tells us the true owners of our constitution i.e WE, THE PEOPLE OF INDIA. It's we the people from which our constitution derives its authority. WE, THE PEOPLE includes every single individual who is a citizen of India irrespective of sex, caste, race, or religion. In India, multiple welfare schemes have been running since independence. The nature of the Indian government, which is of a welfare state, demarcates the SOCIALIST tilt of our country. Since a major portion of our population is poor, the state i.e the government(both centre and state) comes ahead to provide a helping hand. In times of COVID, you might have seen many governments providing free meals, free shelters, very low-interest credits to migrants or poor workers, all this shows that either its the time of crisis or not, the government will always be present so that the poor aren't under looked. And Yes, there exist multiple aspects under socialism other than the welfare state concept too (which would be covered in future blogs). Moving on to religion, as per our constitution, we are a SECULAR state which means the state does not have a religion and the state shouldn't discriminate between religions. We also have separate laws governing different religions. 

There are few principles on which our constitution is based. And those are Justice, Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity. And these are the four keywords that are holistically implemented by the Fundamental Rights, Directive principles of state policies, and the Fundamental Duties. Justice is an important concept in a society especially in a diverse one like India(since Ek Ghar me jyada bartan honge to obviously bajne ki awaz to ayegi hi). Liberty plays a major role in the development of an individual. Just think if you do not have the liberty of either thought, expression, belief, faith, or worship, your development would be incomplete. Similarly, it's important to maintain Equality in society so that there is no discrimination especially to those which belong to the weaker section. And lastly, Fraternity is included to maintain a sense of brotherhood in our multi-diverse country. 

A Real-life application of preamble:

Elections. While exercising our Universal Adult Franchise, everyone must do a critical analysis of all the political parties. This critical analysis can be done using the principles of the preamble. You can consider parameters like Religious harmony, is Justice(social, economic, political) prevailing, Equality exists or there is more division, are our liberal thoughts, expressions, faith or beliefs getting compromised, and so on. If every individual voter ponders over these parameters before casting their votes, indeed we will be true to ourselves as well as our democracy. 

Lastly, in a country like India where we have the largest number of malnourished children, millions of unemployed, a rising number of crimes, and environmental conditions getting degraded day by day, it is important for us to contribute to the development of our society. If we are true to ourselves and lead our lives on the principles of preamble, we indeed will be able to shape India into a true SOVEREIGN, SOCIALIST, SECULAR, and DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC.

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INDIAN CONSTITUTION: THE BIG BOOK

INDIAN CONSTITUTION: THE BIG BOOK

   October 12, 2020       Ankur Jangra

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Constitution- It can simply be defined as a set of rules and regulations in order to run an organization, family, society, country, or maybe any other grouping. It can be both written as well as not written. Constitutions have been existing for ages in some form or the other. Today lets have a walk through some of the glimpses and special features about our constitution. As a responsible citizen of our country, it's important for us to know at least a little about the book by which we are governed.

Historical Making of the Book

Ok, so let us start from scratch. India was a colony back then in 1919 when the colonial government passed the Government of India Act, 1919 famously known as the Montague-Chelmsford reforms. It had few provisions which actually became part of our constitution later. Meanwhile, a negative remark came from a very famous personality back then that Indians were not qualified to draft a constitution on their own. In response came a famous Nehru Report(by Motilal Nehru, not Pandit Nehru). Although it was also a controversial one yet, it had many features which are still the part of our constitution like- Fundamental Rights including equal rights for women, universal adult suffrage, linguistic provinces/states(for example current states organization- Gujarat for Gujarati speaking, Tamilnadu for Tamil speaking, Maharashtra for Marathi speaking and so on), etc. Post-Nehru report, came the most important act i.e the Government of India Act, 1935. Most of our constitution is based on this act. 

After a tussle of almost 10 years came the D-Day i.e 9th of December, 1946 when the constituent assembly first met. For those who don't know, the constituent assembly was basically a sitting of few indirectly elected people who were given the task of setting a framework for governing independent India. 

There were many committees which were made with some assigned particular task. One such committee was the Drafting Committee which was headed by none other than the father of our Constitution Dr. B.R.Ambedhkar. Drafting Committee, as the name suggests was given the task of making the constitution. It took almost 3 years to compile the constitution of our country and after lots of debates and discussions, finally, on 26th November 1949, the constitution was adopted and came into force from 26th January 1950 which we celebrate as the Republic Day. 

Did you observe one thing? It took almost 3 years to make the big book. The reason our constitution is the bulkiest constitution in the world. Now one might have a thought that how come the makers of our constitution got so many ideas to add in the big book. The answer to this is that many constitutions did exist back then. So basically our big bookmakers played smart. They borrowed many features from the constitutions of different countries. Few such examples are- the Fundamental Rights borrowed from the USA, the Directive Principles of State Policy borrowed from Ireland, the Parliamentary form of government from the UK, and the list goes on. 

Many famous policymakers and political thinkers had criticized that the Indian Constitution is nothing but a copy and paste of multiple features of multiple constitutions, basically just a borrowed one. We can't say that they are wrong but at the same time, not completely correct as well. During that time, if there existed many successful constitutions, then what's wrong in borrowing some from it. The intelligence played a major role here. For a country with multiple diversities and people of different ethnicities, it's not easy to define a set fixed standard that could be applicable and followed by everyone. Our constitution makers were smart enough that they took the best out of the rest and compiled into a single unit. 

The constitutions are either rigid, flexible, or both. A rigid Constitution means it is very difficult to add something/amend the constitution i.e the process of amending the constitution is very complex. And a flexible constitution means as and when one thinks, an amendment can be made. The Indian constitution is a perfect blend of rigidity as well as flexibility. As per the need of the situation, it can set its gear as it wants. But the same is not the scenario in comparison to most of the nations. For example, the US constitution is very rigid in nature i.e it is very difficult to add an amendment to it since it is based on the principles of complete federalism and the UK constitution which in contrast is very flexible. 

Certain provisions which form the part of the Basic Structure of our constitution(Fundamental Rights, DPSPs, Independent Judiciary, etc) are not easier to amend. Consider one of our fundamental right to freedom of speech and expression, now this cannot be taken away by amending the constitution since it is the very basic part of an individual's personality and wholly for a democracy. So in this case our constitution acts as a rigid one. Now consider another example for changing the name of the states. This can be done easily since this is not going to have any impact on individuals or our country and here our constitution acts as a flexible one. 

Few features of our constitution are: 

1. Secular state character

2. A federal system with Unitary bias

3. Parliamentary form of Government

4. A mixture of Parliamentary Sovereignty and Judicial Supremacy

5. Independent Judiciary

6. Universal Adult Franchise

7. Single Citizenship

8. Democratic Decentralisation- 3 tiers of government

When the constitution was made, many political experts argued/predicted that India being a country of multiple diversities and ethnicities, it's constitution would fail. Today, our constitution consists of a Preamble, 25 parts, 12 schedules, and more than 400 articles and stand strong and united even after 70 years. Until now, it has been amended 104 times. The fact that our's is such a diverse country, it is the constitution that binds us all together under a single roof. Our constitution acts as a parent that guides its children when they are young and once they mature, it lets them modify itself i.e transition them from one generation to another with a new set of rules and regulations as per the changing times.  A dialogue from the movie "Article 15" starring Ayushmann Khurrana, which said, "Uss Kitab Ki Chalani Padegi, Ussi Se Chalega Desh", stands true today and for generations to come.

JAI HIND!!

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