Ritual of the day – Constitution day

As one has rightly said, it’s not about the actions you take on that one specific day, but throughout the year that determines your success. It’s pretty much true in the case of our Indian leaders who woke up today and didn’t choose violence, because, guess what, it’s Constitution Day.

On November 26^th, 1950, the constituent assembly adopted the indigenously curated Constitution, culminating in it all the values it had fought for 200 years. The constitution’s makers hoped that it would usher in an era of rule of law, good governance, harmony, and welfare.

It’s been 74 years since then, most of the hope was lost along the way. While the values remain the same, they have been dissected by various ideologies to form a meaning of their own. Words like Justice, Equality, and Liberty have become more vibrant than ever. The only issue is that everyone has their own meaning of it.

The polarization of the political, economic, and social spheres has created divergent views of what these words constitute.

Justice, treating equals equally and unequal’s unequally, is no longer the central thesis; instead, it is centred on your surname and your region of origin. If you are a Kashmiri like Bashir Ahemad Baba, then your name and the place you are from are enough for you to be booked under UAPA and live-in jail for the next 11 years of your life just to be released at the end when your life is half gone.

Equality is more about the rule of the wealthy, as according to Thomas Piketty and Lucas Chancel, income inequality is at its highest in the last 100 years, with the top 1% enjoying 22% of total Indian wealth.

While this is the economic angle of inequality, the social angle isn’t that hard to detect as there are increasing atrocities on Dalits and various religious minorities.

Seventy-four years down the line, liberty is just one fancy word that tells the world that India is a democracy where its citizens are free to do whatever they want since it’s written in the constitution, but in reality, all of this becomes a façade to cover the crackdown on journalists, academics, and protestors expressing their opinions or just abiding by the constitution.

There is a lack of freedom in institutions like election commissions, whose decisions are biased towards the ruling government.

The constitution is sacred, but the devotion towards it has become more ritualistic. Even if you don’t abide by it, you still pretend to be devoted to it.

So, today is just that time of the year when every leader comes out as a devotee, chanting what’s written in the document like a mantra, with no idea what it means, just to go rogue the very next day and violate everything that our constitution stands for. So, let’s not be swayed away by the once a year devotion and let’s keep a reality check in mind.

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