India’s Obsession With Amending Its Constitution
The constitution of a country is the supreme law of the country. The American constitution was adopted on September 17, 1787 in Philadelphia (which is my favorite city in the United States). Since 1787 the constitution of the United States has been amended only 27 times. To amend the US constitution the following steps have to be taken: 1) Two-thirds of both houses should vote to propose an amendment, 2) Three-fourths of the state legislatures should approve it. The last amendment (the 27th) was actually submitted in 1789 and ratified only in 1992.
There are two lessons to be learnt here. It is very difficult to amend the US constitution and amending the constitution can only be done for serious issues (like abolishing slavery, bill of rights etc.). Secondly the process takes time and can only happen if ¾ of the state legislatures cooperate. This ensures that the ideals that the country stands for remains in place for an extended period of time and any change if necessary should be well thought out, discussed in a very transparent manner and with the approval of not just the Federal (Central) government but also the State governments because they also have to abide by the new law. The number of times a country’s constitution has been amended, changed or rewritten will say a lot about how stable the country is, the maturity of the democracy, quality of the leadership and the political parties and how aware the pubic is about what the government is up to.
India’s constitution came into effect on January 26 1950. It is one of the longest written constitutions in the world. The process to modify the Indian constitution is almost identical to the United States. However, the Indian constitution can also be amended by simple majority if the government so chooses. It has been amended 94 times (mostly though simple majority process). Can a document as important as the constitution that has been amended 94 times already within 63 years stay true to the principles of the original version?
In 1975 Indira Gandhi (India’s first women Prime Minister. She was one of the first female democratically elected leader of a country when she was first elected as Prime Minister of India in 1968) amended the constitution and added the word “socialist” to our preamble to the constitution (a time at which China and most of the Western democracies in the world where moving away from socialism to free market economy). Was this amendment well thought of or necessary?
At the moment India is getting ready to amend its constitution once again. India has decided to raise the quota for women representatives in the Panchayat (panchayat (assembly of 5 people) are village elders who represent the village and resolve issues within the village). The panchayat is the foundation of India’s democracy. According to Indian government data 38% of panchayat representatives are women. However, the government wants to raise reservation for women from the constitutionally permitted level of 33% to 50%. Giving authority and power to women at all walks of society is a noble cause. But if you increase the level to 50% and then add 25% to other forms of reservation (including SC/ST) then only 25% of the seats will be up for real competition. Is this going to improve the status of women, improve the standing of the Indian democracy or are we just creating another pool of power?
India is one of the few countries in the world that continues to experiment with reservation as a form of improving the lot of the disadvantaged. But all indications are that this model has failed. Caste, religion or sex of the individual is not a good indicator of whether the person (s) is disadvantaged or not. Other factors like income, property, and health are better indicators. Should we continue this failed policy and also compound it by our old addiction to modifying our constitution frequently?
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