It will not be easy to draft Constitution today: Nariman in book

It won’t be easy to draft a new Constitution for India today, one of India’s most respected jurists Fali Nariman writes in his new book “ You Must Know Your Constitution”. “In constitution-making, there are hidden forces that must not be ignored, viz., the spirit of persuasion, of accommodation, and of tolerance. In India—as in the rest of the world—all three are at a very low ebb today.’’

Nariman’s comments come at a time when some right wing intellectuals have raised questions about the current Constitution, and asked whether its basic structure can be changed. “The life of a written Constitution—like the life of the law—is not logic (or draftsmanship), but experience. Seventy-odd years of experience on this subcontinent has shown that it is easier to frame a Constitution than to work it....We will never be able to piece together a new Constitution in the present day and age simply because innovative ideas however brilliant and howsoever encouragingly expressed in consultation papers and reports of commissions, can never give us an ideal Constitution,’’ he writes in the book.

The 94-year old Padma Vibhushan awardee also doesn’t shy away from jumping into the recent debate about bringing in a Uniform Civil Code, suggesting that India may not yet be ready for it. The Law Commission is preparing a report on it, and the Uttarakhand government is reviewing a report prepared by a committee on it. “There is of course logic in favour of the plea for a uniform civil code. We do need a uniform civil code, but only when we, i.e., We the People, are all ready for it, and when we have, in thought and deed, put all acrimony behind us. Till then, as Winston Churchill once said in a speech in the House of Commons (when it was suggested that he rename Government ministries), ‘beware of needless innovations, especially when guided by logic’,’’ he writes.

The book is also critical on aspects such as sedition and why it has no place in the constitution. In fact, he cites Sardar Patel to make his point.

“The order banning the circulation of Cross Roads in Madras (state; now Tamil Nadu) was quashed. Days later, Sardar Patel wrote to Prime Minister Nehru that sedition could no longer be a crime. And the well-informed statesman was spot-on,’’ he writes. Nariman, in fact, has a stern word for the chairman of the Law Commission who in June said that sedition was “the need of the hour’’. The comment, he says was “a bolt from the blue -- clearly, he spoke out of turn.” Cross Roads was a leftist journal.

Speaking to HT, Nariman said: “I am simply alarmed (and dismayed) by sedition remaining a part of the new law since it was always an oppressive colonial law that demanded not just mere obedience from the citizens to the orders of a foreign government but also insisted on citizens having an ‘affection’ for it. So when Gandhi ji was charged with sedition (as I have related in the book), he readily agreed and pleaded guilty to the charge since he had no ‘affection’ at all for the Government!.”

Finally, while remarking on the future of democracy, another contemporary issue, Nariman writes that it is dependent on a successful opposition.

“It is important always to keep in mind that a democratic government demands not only a parliamentary majority but also a parliamentary minority,’’ he writes, noting that both the Congress and the BJP have been guilty of targeting the opposition when in power. “... the record of each of these two rival sets of majoritarian governments—vis-a-vis political parties in opposition (whether from 1952 to 1989 or from 2014 onwards)—has been dismal—not inspiring at all!’’