On the road to Liberty

Political ideologies are simple tools by which people decide on the general direction they think society ought to take. In a true democracy, different political ideals have to compete to win the support of the people. The authors of the Indian Constitution had specifically debated and rejected the idea of binding the country to socialism. Yet, the Preamble to the Constitution was amended in 1976, and the election law in 1989, requiring all political parties to affirm to the Constitution, and to socialism. Now, the Supreme Court has acknowledged that there are valid questions on the issue of socialism, though academic, at this point in time. So it is a time to form a Party, and part with socialism. Let us be liberal, and play the tune of freedom! This article of mine, " A time to Party! ", was published in Pragati, a national interest magazine, in its August 2010 issues. Recently, the Supreme Court dismissed a public interest litigation (PIL) that questioned the validity of t...

In the constituent assembly in 1948, Dr B R Ambedkar, the chairman of the drafting committee, had clearly reasoned why no political ideology, socialism or anything else, should be included in the Constitution, binding the future generations. But in 1976, under her emergency rule, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi introduced the 42 amendment which among many other things, also introduced "socialism" in to the preamble. Now, 0ver fifteen years since India began to liberalise and reform our economic system, and began a slow journey moving away from the socialist policies that had strangulated the economy, "Should India remain a socialist republic?" I ask this question in view of a recent PIL that raised the same question in the Supreme Court, on 5 February 2008. Last month, the Supreme Court issued notice to the Government of India and the Election Commission in response to a petition questioning the constitutionality of India being a socialist state. The judges wanted to...

Countries where socialism was the only political ideology of the state inevitably degenerated into dictatorship. At stake is the democratic and political process, which includes campaigning and convincing the people of any particular political ideology, I write in the Mint on 17 January 2008, that " ‘Our’ socialist agenda: the time to oust it has come " . The world has come to admire India’s democratic institutions. However, many may be unaware that in this, the largest democracy, all political parties have to profess the same political ideology—socialism. The Supreme Court has now asked the government and the Election Commission to explain this apparent paradox. Under the Representation of the People Act, all political parties in India have to pledge allegiance not only to the Constitution and integrity of India, but also to socialism. The socialist intent of the Preamble has been extended by law to the Representation of the People Act, 1951, (RP Act) through an amendment i...

Should we continue to hold that socialism as one of the cherished Constitutional goals of the Indian Republic? In this article, I discuss how "socialism" was discussed at the time of the making of our constitution, and why it was rejected. And then, I look at how it crept in to the constitution during the Emergency Days in 1976, and ask, what is its relevance of this anachronism today? A version of this article appeared in the Ananda Bazar Patrika (Bengali) on 17 January 2008, under the title " Should we be tied to socialism? " Last month, the Supreme Court issued notice to the Government of India and the Election Commission in response to a petition questioning the constitutionality of India being a socialist state. The judges wanted to hear about the practical and legal implications of having a socialist intent in the preamble which has led to the changes in the Representation of People Act, making it mandatory for all registered political parties in India to aff...

Fundamental right is not a luxury for the rich, but a necessity for the poor. The rich has the resources to protect their interest by any number of ways, the poor has nothing but the law to fall on. A version of this article of mine had appeared in the Bengali langugage newspaper, the Ananda Bazar Patrika in Calcutta, on 21 March 2007. A lot is being said about the tragedy of Singur and Nandigram in West Bengal, Parliament has been adjourned, yet not much light has been shed on the real significance of these protests by farmers on the issue of land acquisition. Brand Buddhadeb may have suffered a fatal blow, but despite the ideological melee, an undercurrent of awareness is spreading through the grassroots of society on an almost unheralded issue – protection of property rights. Political and social activists have been hurling arguments accusations, trying to score points against their rivals. If one wants to stress the need for industrialisation, the other calls for inclusive growth....

My article titled "The Legacy of Hayek" was published in The Economic Times, 8 May 1999. Friedrich A. von Hayek, the philosopher of freedom and Nobel laureate economist, was born on 8 May, 1899 in Vienna, one hundred years ago. The man, who went on to become one of the greatest champions of liberty, however, had begun his life as a young soldier in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and was sent to the Italian front in 1917. An academic, whose “controversial ideas” were eventually recognised by the Nobel committee in 1974, Hayek was also an activist who was among the founders of the Mont Pelerin Society in 1948, an organisation dedicated to pursue the intellectual battle against all forms of authoritarianism and tyranny. While we in India were fascinated by government planning, a quarter century ago, the Nobel Academy held that “von Hayek’s analysis of the functional efficiency of different economic systems is one of his most significant contributions to economic research in the br...

My article titled "Who is an Indian?" appeared in the newsletter of Liberty Institute in May 1999. It is ironic that the Prime Minister has sparked off a “national debate” on whether any foreign-born person should be allowed to hold the highest political offices in the land, because only a few weeks earlier, he had quoted from Tagore in a programme broadcast live on national TV–"milibey aar milabey; jaabey na pheerey... Aiyee bharoter mahamanober sagaro teere"– From these sacred shores of cultural union, India has not sent any one back. More so since, in the lines preceding those that the Prime Minister quoted, the poet says the Indian civilisation has successfully assimilated the Aryans, the non-Aryans, the Dravidians, the Chinese, the Shakas, the Huns, the Pathans, the Moghuls. The question of the “foreign born” was settled by the members of the Constituent Assembly after substantive deliberations fifty years ago. It is strange that the question of nationality a...