Spirit of Constitution guides the Republic
In an article in the Hindustan Times, Om Birla, speaker of the Lok Sabha, reflects on the enduring relevance of the Indian constitution. The constitution, adopted on 26 November, 1949, managed to not only address but also make accommodations for the special needs and customs of minorities and marginalised groups. On the anniversary of this historical occasion, the Lok Sabha speaker highlights how the document has managed to carry meaning in the lives of citizens of all age groups, breaching barriers of gender, caste, language and religion.
“The makers of our Constitution had the wisdom and foresight to acknowledge that a document drafted and adopted in a particular age needs to be equipped with flexibility and adroitness to accommodate the demands of future generations. Great care was taken to allow amendability of the constitutional provisions but the degree of ease of amendability of an article was very carefully modulated on sound legal principles and practical considerations about the content of the given Article. A balance was sought to be struck between “flexibility” and “rigidity” in a manner that amendments that impinged on the federating provisions, for instance, required to be ratified by a majority of legislatures of the states.”Om Birla, Hindustan Times
Copy, Cut and Paste ‘Reform’
In an article in The Indian Express, former finance minister P Chidambaram assesses the three bills brought by the central government to replace the seminal bills of the Indian Penal Code, 1860, the Criminal Procedure Code, 1973 and the Indian Evidence Act, 1872. Chidambaram states that most of the provisions in the new bills have merely been rearranged, not enhanced or modified. Moreover, Chidambaram argues that instead of bringing progressive reforms, there are some retrograde provisions that have either been retained or brought back, such as punishment for adultery, death penalty, solitary confinement and others.
“Adultery is back as a crime. Adultery is a matter between husband and wife. If the compact between them is broken, the aggrieved spouse may sue for divorce or civil damages. The State has no business to enter their lives. Worse, Section 497 IPC that was struck down by the Supreme Court has been brought back in a gender-neutral form. Power of the Executive to commute a sentence of death or life imprisonment without recording reasons is violative of Article 14 of the Constitution. Solitary confinement is a cruel and unusual punishment. The legislative bar on the media reporting court proceedings in certain cases is unconstitutional. Terrorists acts are adequately dealt with in the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and there is no need to bring them under the new Penal Code. The abolition of the rank of Assistant Sessions Judge is wrong because it will place a heavy burden on the Sessions Judge and the first appeal will lie to the High Court and add to the burden of the High Courts.”P Chidambaram, The Indian Express
Behind The Mask
Columnist Mukul Kesavan, writes in The Telegraph, that the manner in which Western leaders have doubled down on their support for Israel despite increasing death figures in Gaza, is reflective of the fact that they are no longer interested in even pretending to be even-handed. Kesavan argues that support for Israel has mutated into something uglier: Hamas has become a synonym not just for Palestinians but also for ‘the Muslim immigrant’, which is Europe’s favorite bogeyman.
“It is the brazenness of the West’s hostility towards the Palestinians, as opposed to its traditional hypocrisy, that makes this moment historic. Why this happened now will be argued over interminably by historians, but as contemporaries we can guess at the reasons. There has always been a tendency in Western governments to see Israel as a Western country in a rough neighbourhood. Israel’s foundation in the aftermath of the Holocaust in the heart of Europe, the crucial role of European Ashkenazi Jews in Israel’s creation, gave it a claim to being a kind of honorary European nation... The anxiety about immigration as a political issue feeds into the hard line that countries like Germany and the UK have taken against the Palestinian cause. If a hostile critique of Israel amounts to anti-Semitism, Europe’s moral health demands unequivocal support for Israel in times of trouble. Since Jeremy Corbyn was indicted for tolerating anti-Semitism in the Labour Party, Keir Starmer has performatively purged Labour of Corbynites and committed the party to a strongly pro-Israel position. British Muslims, traditionally committed Labour voters, are now treated by Starmer as a political embarrassment.”Mukul Kesavan, The Telegraph
A visually striking milestone of our constitutional history
In an article in The Indian Express, Chakshu Roy, head of outreach at PRS Legislative Research, reflects on how the writing of the Indian Constitution was a mammoth task, involving extensive deliberations, arguments, and compromises. The Indian Constitution was adopted on 26 November 1949, and in the final leg of the Constitution-making process, Dr Rajendra Prasad had decided that the document must be hand-written and signed by each member of the constituent assembly; certain that a plain, printed version would not carry the same gravity in the hearts and minds of the public.
“Handwriting our Constitution was a mammoth task. It is one of the longest ones in the world. The printed text ran into roughly 300 pages at the time of adoption. Writing it had to be done in two months in Delhi’s biting winter because Constituent Assembly members were to sign it on January 24, 1950, two days before it came into force. In October 1949, Dr Prasad approached eminent artist Nandalal Bose to decorate the pages of the calligraphed Constitution, saying that “…the illuminated manuscript will be treasured by the nation and by the future generations as a monument not only of our political and intellectual labours but also of the nation’s artistic achievements”. And roughly two weeks before the adoption of the Constitution, the Constituent Assembly secretariat engaged the services of expert calligrapher Prem Behari Narain Raizada to write every Article of the Constitution.”Chakshu Roy, The Indian Express
Build on Gaza truce for peace in West Asia
In an article in the Hindustan Times, DP Srivastava, former Indian ambassador to Iran, discusses the "humanitarian pause" and the release of hostages have been agreed upon in the ongoing Israel-Palestine war. The article speaks of how Israel’s “window of legitimacy is closing fast” and how different countries with varying socio-political interests could play a pivotal role in mitigating the casualties of the war, including India.
“A two-State solution is the way out. A demilitarized Gaza under Palestinian control could answer Israel’s security needs. There has to be a rollback of settlements in the West Bank. A commentator James Dorsey quoted an Israeli study that 80% of the Jewish population is in settlements which form 4% of the territory, and are close to the pre-1967 borders. A political settlement with a small land swap is possible. This no doubt entails difficult choices. But ending forever wars is never going to be easy. India could play a role if both sides want.”DP Srivastava, Hindustan Times
We must never forget 26/11
With Israel’s response to the 7 October attack being ‘brutal’ and ‘merciless’, the enormity of what Hamas did has “faded into the background”, argues columnist Tavleen Singh in The Indian Express. Singh writes that after the deaths of over 15000 people in Gaza, many of whom are children, the world is condemning Israel in one voice. But, she states, one must not forget the origin of the present warring. Notably, Singh writes this on the fifteenth anniversary of the horrific 26/11 terror attacks in Mumbai and says that the Indian response should not be retrospectively praised.
“There have been powerful voices urging Israel to show restraint instead of rage. And in doing this, there has been praise for India’s restraint after 26/11. This has been said by important international columnists. I need to say emphatically that they are not just wrong, they seem unaware of what really happened. Indian officials in power at that time are these days preening proudly about how well they handled a very difficult situation. They did not. They did nothing more than wander about the forums of the world weeping and wailing. When our Prime Minister met Pakistan’s prime minister for the first time after the attack on Mumbai, he diminished its awful enormity by agreeing to also talk about Baluchistan. Why he did this remains one of the great mysteries of Indian diplomacy since it amounted to an admission that what Pakistan’s ‘non-state actors’ did in Mumbai was no different to Indian meddling in Baluchistan. If we were meddling, we were doing a bad job.”Tavleen Singh, The Indian Express
Is AI an ally in fight for gender equality?
In an article in the Hindustan Times, Nishtha Satyam, the head of office for UN Women in Timor Leste, reflects on the growing influence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and questions whether it can be used as a tool to fight patriarchy, or to further enable it. Highlighting the gross underrepresentation of women in AI development, Satyam argues that there is an urgent need for increased representation of women in the field, in order to avoid biases in AI systems.
“The lack of women in data science can create feedback loops that result in gender bias in AI and machine learning systems. The rise of AI, exemplified by the popularity of large language models such as ChatGPT, has demonstrated that AI poses a threat not only to assembly line workers but also to knowledge workers. Within this context, women and vulnerable groups may find themselves even further marginalised. For instance, researchers from Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais in Brazil conducted searches using keywords for “beautiful” and “ugly” women in 59 different countries. They discovered that “beautiful” women tended to be white and young, while the “ugly” keyword returned images of older, black, or Asian women. These searches are determined by algorithms that shape what internet users see in search results, perpetuating racial and gender stereotypes present in society.”Nishtha Satyam, Hindustan Times
No one likes a sore loser
Writer and director Leher Kala critiques the Indian fans and spectators present at The Narendra Modi stadium in Ahmedabad on the World Cup final between India and Australia, in this piece for The Indian Express. Kala writes that early on in the game, once spectators inferred that Australia is out-playing India, they either sat quietly with glum faces or simply left the stadium. Despite the Ahmedabad stadium touted to be the largest in the world, the “graceless lack of sportsmanship” is a lesson that important matches should be played in more cosmopolitan cities, Kala asserts.
“Actually, it’s letting Indians off too easy by ascribing their petulant behavior towards the Australian team’s victory in Ahmedabad only to hyper-nationalism or jingoism. In plain language, they were uncouth and rude and we should be collectively cringing that the international press has labelled Indian fans as “pathetic and immature”. Sportsmanship is an attitude that applies not just to sport but how we conduct ourselves in our daily lives. It’s the innate understanding that it’s pointless to take either winning or losing too seriously because everyone has some good days, and many, deeply humbling ones. It’s unfortunate that our failures occupy far more headspace than our victories but perhaps that is what is required to stay grounded. Human optimism instinctively makes room for the tantalising possibility that the next hour will be our finest, but when it’s not, we owe it to everybody to bear it stoically.”Leher Kala, The Indian Express
Reading our way into the future
In an article in the New Indian Express, Geetha Ravichandran, former bureaucrat and author, makes a case for positive interventions that must be initiated to rekindle a reading culture in India, especially among the youth. The author gives the example of government schools in Tamil Nadu which have started a Vasippu Iyakkam (reading movement) to encourage students to pursue their reading interests and learn outside the classroom. Similarly, the author writes, reading centres and libraries need to be made commonplace in rural areas by the government to help revive a reading culture.
“The option of surfing the internet for information and solutions has given rise to a ‘scrolling culture’. The flipside is that much of the content accessed online is the product of superficial knowledge, and does not trigger an in-depth understanding of a subject. On the other hand, reading a book and constructing an image in the mind is a cognitive act that leads to comprehension and interpretation. To soak in ideas and be influenced by them can be a life-changing event. Mahatma Gandhi, for instance, was so deeply inspired by Henry David Thoreau’s essay on civil disobedience that it changed his life and the destiny of our nation. Reading can prove to be a voyage that opens several gateways.”Geetha Ravichandran, New Indian Express