A COMMENTARY ON CONSTITUTIONAL
DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF INDIA
By
Dr. Jag Pal Singh
'Sameer Kutir', 642/7, Jagriti Vihar,
Meerut - 250004. (U.P.), INDIA.
ABOUT THE BOOK
In these days all over the country, there is a very serious and genuine demand for changing the existing Vicious Circle of Constitutional Democratic Republic. Ill conceived definitions of the concepts of "voter"; "right to vote" and "election" provide the foundation to the Vicious Circle of Constitutional Democratic Republic. Accepting the demand and popular dictum, "in order to achieve the marvelous the unthinkable must be thought", the present book defines all the three above mentioned concepts on the basis of their inherent essence and spirit and proposes a "partyless six-tier decentralized bottom-to-top institutional structure of governance along with 'Rule of Maximum Vote' based procedure for election for its constitution and operation. The proposed structure of governance and procedure for election are capable enough to ensure equal opportunity-liberty-right to contest election and to cast his/her vote in favor of the candidate nominated by himself/herself only to every voter of the country. Equal opportunity-liberty-right to contest election is a common denominator for challenging the Vicious Circle of Constitutional Democratic Republic and examining the democratic validity of the proposed institutional structure of governance and procedure for election.
Instead of putting demand for different types of rights; different types of equalities; different types of liberties; different types of justices and different types of securities, the reformers and the social activists working in the country must put demand jointly for democratic right, i.e., "equal opportunity-liberty-right to contest election" or "availability of every participating voter of the constituency/electoral college for getting his/her thoughts-expressions-actions evaluated by every participating voter of the constituency/electoral college on the basis of day-to-day interaction. The demand for democratic rights would certainly help in mobilizing over seventy crore voters of the country mentally and physically for initiating and running a nation-wide Revolutionary Democratic Movement successfully.
Name and Address of the Publisher:
First Published: 2008
Copyright: Author
ISBN......
Printed in India
FOREWORD
A Commentary on Constitutional Democratic Republic of India authored by Dr. Jag Pal Singh is a thought–provoking book on what has gone wrong with the Indian secular, democratic republic. The book raises lot of important questions and advocates for systemic changes so that India will become in real sense a socialist, secular, and sovereign democratic republic. The author has rightly focused on the drawbacks with the present Indian polity and has in his own way advocated some solutions, which are very radical in nature and which will require overhauling of the entire political system. It may be a gigantic task for anybody to take up. Some of the issues raised which weaken the foundations of the democracy in India are important enough to be seriously taken note off. The emphasis of the book on the importance of elections and the Right to Vote is the cornerstone of the main theme of the book. Though there may be difference of opinion on various concepts developed in the book. The author has exercised the right to express his views freely.
The book will be a significant contribution and the pleasure reading for all those who are interested in laying down a new road map for the Indian democracy. Though the ideas expressed in the book are exclusively within the domain of the author which one may or may not agree but the author deserves compliments for thinking out of the box to solve the problems faced by the Indian political system.
Prof. RANBIR SINGH
Vice-Chancellor
Nalsar University of Law,
HYDERABAD
FOREWORD
Every now and then one is fortunate to come across a revolutionary thinker who changes the face of the nation, and proves to be a boon to mankind. Dr. Singh is one such person. His crystal clear concepts of a successful democracy by the people, of the people and for the people is unique. His logic is impeccable. Freedom has eluded us in that there is no real governance nor is power vested in the people under the present system devised by the vested interests. The system, "top to bottom", is anti-democratic which is based on the concept of "justification and not verification". His candid concepts of a system evolved on the basis of "bottom to top" is the only solution for a true democratic and socialistic se tup, which will realize the aspirations of the freedom fighters to have a true democracy.
None can deny his pointed statement that "Redressal of the damage done to India and Indians demands immediate replacement of the present process of politicization by the process of socialization." There is no doubt that to the people of India, democracy has become a farce, a tool for criminals and politicians to the masses.
His rationalization has appealed me, and I am certain it will appeal to all conscience oriented people with aspirations to see his dream of a glorious future for our country reaches the hearts of the people.
RANJAN DWIVEDI
Advocate
Supreme Court of India
New Delhi
PREFACE
"It is interesting to see how the so-called Third World countries in which more than three-fourth of the humanity lives have responded to the UN Declaration. As Jennings puts it, 'psychology of the government is in fact more important than the form of government.' Initially every country that attained independence religiously swore by democracy and human rights. But with time, democracy came to be qualified by injecting their own non-democratic ideology into it, preserving only the "holy word". Philippines, Malaysia and Liberia justified dictatorships by calling it Individualist Democracy. Saudi Arabia and Ethiopia called their type of aristocracy Elitist Democracy while the military dictatorships of Burma, Pakistan and Egypt called themselves Guided Democracies. Indonesia's Soekarno went to the extent of even labelling the election-based democracy as a disease that was a result from free fight liberalism. As there was no effective UN intervention on these 'developments', the human rights violations committed by them were also largely ignored" (Pinto, 2004).
"Democracy, in all class divided societies, according to Marx, has always remained as the dictatorship of some dominating class over others. For instance, in the Greek city states, the idea of equal rights of men did not apply to the slaves. Again, the capitalist democracy, in reality, is a democracy for the minority, only for the possessing class. As a result of capitalist exploitation, the vast majority of the people of the society are suffering by want and poverty and, therefore, democracy is nothing to them and politics is nothing to them. A true democracy, i.e., majority rule, Marx claimed, is possible in socialist democracy because it not only gives rights to the individuals, but also ensures the material conditions necessary to enjoy and improve them" (Satyanarayana, 2004).
"In the present context capitalist democracies in its myriad forms cannot bring sustainable peace and prosperity for the people at large. At the present moment the most powerful democratic power remains the major threat to global power. It is the real source of global "terrorism". While making this observation, we must be careful about the fact that the major socialist experiments made in the past - be it in the Soviet Union or in China - degenerated in course of time into Party dictatorships. They failed to hold high the banner of socialist democracy which must be both an extension of capitalist democracy and a transcendence of it. That is not really a wishful thinking. In a socialist society where the commanding heights of the economy are in the hands of the State and the medium enterprises are allowed to be run by cooperatives of the working masses, it is not difficult for some opposition groups to function freely in the domain of politics. Freedom of speech and expression are not anathema to a socialistic order. On the contrary, such freedoms are a sine qua non for ensuring stability of the socialist system" (Panda, 2004).
"The rule of law is thus being eroded before our very eyes at the beginning of the 21st Century. The people of the world have been reduced to helpless spectators when the international law painstakingly nurtured over the last three centuries and more is being undone. Powerful States attack small States at will, occupy them, change governments and set up collaborator regimes, kill and maim the civil population, destroy their infrastructure, exploit their natural resources for their own benefit, loot or destroy their cultural heritage, all in the name of replacing tyranny and depotism with Democracy" (Shahabuddin 2005).
Alam (1999) reports that "though people value the system of representation, they do not find the representatives elected by them as worthy of regard." In 1971, as much as 58 percent of voters said that the elected representatives do not pay attention to, or care about, voters' interests and concerns. The situation became worse by 1996 when the percentage of disillusioned voters went up to as much as 63 percent. Reacting on it, Sau (2002) wrote, "Going by Javeed Alam's incisive study we can say that our commitment to democracy is deepening; but our voices are increasingly falling short of reaching the august precincts of legislature and judiciary. We are being increasingly alienated. Yet, every one of us has an invaluable story to tell, a precious lesson of experience to deposit with the society. It is time we have a forum, where everyone will have an invitation to come and speak. Let billion voices rise."
On the basis of the above quotes it can be logically and firmly concluded that: (i) democratic system of governance is still pre-matured; (ii) all over the world academicians and researchers in general and the communists in particular are more interested in highlighting the failure of democratic system of governance in achieving its intended goal, i.e., ensuring different types of human rights, different types of equalities, different types of justices, different types of liberties and different types of securities to every citizen of the State; and (iii) required efforts have not been made (a) to identify the tools which implement democratic system of governance, (b) to pinpoint the defects in the structures of these tools, and (c) to find out the feasible solutions. The present situation of democratic system of governance can be equated with the crashed aircraft. In order to find out maladies and feasible remedies, one has to post-mortem the black box related to the democratic system of governance, i.e., "(alternate) structures of the tools which implement democratic system of governance". The present book is an effort in this direction.
Right to vote is the foundation of Democratic Republic. Right to vote demands the multi-tier institutional structure of governance and procedure for election which must ensure the availability of every participating voter of the constituency/electoral college for getting his/her thoughts-expressions-actions evaluated by every participating voter of the constituency/electoral college on the basis of day-to-day interaction. Multi-tier institutional structure of governance constituted and operated by so called ideology based political parties and as per 'the first-past-the post' system based procedure for election converted the democratic right to vote into right to endorse the choice of one or the other political party or of any independent candidate. Ill conceived definitions of the concepts of 'voter', 'right to vote' and 'election' destroyed the theoretical and legal base of 'right to vote'. In brief, through Constitution and the Representation of the People Act, the Constituent Assembly provided to the sovereign citizens of independent India an unbreakable Vicious Circle of Constitutional Democratic Republic, which is a very serious legislative conspiracy and a huge fraud perpetrated by the legislators of independent India against the voters of the so called largest democracy of the world.
In order to immunize the ill conceived definitions of the above mentioned concepts from judicial review and the unbreakable Vicious Circle of Constitutional Democratic Republic from the public action through referendum, the Constituent Assembly of India included Article 329 and Article 368 respectively in the Constitution. Article 368 provides monopolistic authority to the Parliament - which is the shadow of the Political Parties - to amend the Constitution. The Political Parties and their leaders could have corrected the legislative conspiracy and huge fraud through constitutional amendments. Instead, the Political Parties and their leaders utilized the Constitution and its provisions for their own existence-survival-growth. Since last twenty five years, the voters of the country have been giving fractured verdicts against the governance of so called ideology based party system, which have never been seen-heard-felt by the Political Parties and their leaders from the angle of the voters of the country. In this situation, initiating and running a Revolutionary Democratic Movement in the country successfully for realising the democratic rights, i.e., "equal opportunity-liberty-right to contest election and to cast his/her vote in favour of the candidate nominated by himself/herself only to every voter of the country, is the only option left with the citizens of this great nation.
The subject matter of the book has been divided into five chapters. The first chapter explains the proposed "partyless six-tier decentralised bottom-to-top institutional structure of governance" and 'Rule of Maximum Vote" based procedure for election. The second chapter provides insights of the Constitutional Democratic Republic. Third and fourth chapters deal with the intellectuals and judicial commentary on the Constitutional Democratic Republic respectively. The fifth chapter summarises the subject matter of the book.
I am aware of the fact that this book could have not been completed without the help and active support from all the members of the Revolutionary Democratic Movement in general and its Office Secretary Mr. Arvind Kumar Tewari, Working President Mr. Ranjan Dwivedi, Finance Secretary Mr. Radhe Shyam Sharma, Vice-President Mr. Mathilisharan and General Secretary Mr. Feroze Ahmed in particular. Therefore, it is my prime duty and responsibility to express my deep sense of gratitude to all of them for their valuable support and inspiration.
The author would like to dedicate his thoughts on different aspects related to the ideal form of 'Representative Democracy' to humanity in general and to Indian citizens in particular with the hope that one day they would put collective and cumulative demand for their democratic right, i.e., "equal opportunity for getting elected".