To initiate a discussion on the ‘new’ foundations of the Indian Constitution, Chief Economic Advisor to the Prime Minister, Bibek Debroy, wrote a column this Independence Day, arguing the following:
This is 2023, 73 years after 1950. Our current Constitution is largely based on the Government of India Act of 1935. In that sense, it is also a colonial legacy. In 2002, there was a report by a commission set up to review the working of the Constitution, but it was a half-hearted effort. As with many aspects of law reform, a tweak here and another there won’t do. We should start with first principles, as in the Constituent Assembly debates.
Some might feel these are valid, critical questions to reflect upon as India is apparently ‘shining’ from the corridors of power. Still, India’s founding constitution involved constituent assembly debates for a period of three years-gave space for critical dialogue, open access, and freedom of expression, to raise/discuss complex issues.
What came out of it, under Dr B R Ambedkar's leadership and prowess, was a carefully crafted constitution addressing the concerns of a deeply stratified, heterogeneous socio-economic fabric in a newly born republic.
What we now see is of course a different reality.
More recently, the nature of events unfolding at National Capital Region’s elite private Ashoka University, as a bastion of ‘liberal’ arts education, shows how an environment of unfreedoms (not freedoms) is shaping the academic culture of higher education-even in private ‘elite’ institutions where government support/money isn’t dictating the working affairs.