HN Nagmohan Das says successive governments have not taken any step to inform our people about the constitution
From birth to death, most of the activities of individuals are governed and governed by some law or the other. Law is an integral part of our daily life. However, most are not aware of their legal rights enshrined in the laws and especially the constitution.
Although we have achieved 78% literacy, we are poor in legal literacy. Most of our countrymen have not read the Constitution. Successive governments have not taken any step to inform our people about the Constitution. We as citizens have failed to show the inclination to know the constitution and laws. Due to our poor legal literacy, a large section of our society is the victim of exploitation, injustice and oppression.
Late Sir M Visvesvaraya, the famous technocrat of the then Mysore, once said that Indians are poor because they now know they are poor. If people are made aware of their constitutional rights and duties, they will demand, enjoy and protect their rights.
This is more urgent at a time when the country is facing challenges and some are talking of changing the basic features of the Constitution.
The youth and students in the country have been misinformed about many important aspects of the Constitution and in this context I wrote a booklet called ‘Samvidhan Odu’. Now it has been translated into English, Hindi and Malayalam. I and publishers, Sahayana and Samudra, campaigned to create constitutional awareness in Karnataka. Our experiences show that people are eager to know about our Constitution, provided efforts are made to reach them.
The nature of questions asked during my interactions with people told me that even basic constitutional knowledge is lacking. According to many, democracy means only elections, secularism means equal treatment to all religions, and social justice means only reservation.
We had to tell them about the wide scope of these concepts and others enshrined in the Constitution during the campaign. It is the Constitution which has paved the way for values like democracy, secularism, social justice, federalism and welfare state. It is the constitution which has established the institutions of legislature, executive and judiciary. It is the Constitution of India which has ensured equal protection and equal opportunities to all irrespective of religion, race, caste, sex, language or place of birth.
BR Ambedkar, while presenting the draft of the Constitution for approval, said, “… No matter how good the Constitution is, it is sure to be bad because those who are asked to make it work are bad. Why the constitution is so bad. No, it can be good if it is called to work, it is great…” This should be our guiding principle forever.
(The author is a retired judge of the Karnataka High Court.)
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