Undermining Constitution

Sir, - This is with reference to the article ``Undermining the Constitution'' by Mr. Garimella Subramaniam (TheHindu, Feb. 12). He is quite right in saying that because Gandhiji had said something, it need not be taken as gospel, but should be considered in the totality of the circumstances. Similarly, because Mr. Kashyap has given a proposal, it should not be condemned. The name of the RSS has unnecessarily been dragged in by the author.

India is a country of villages and unless the villagers are given a greater say in the country's affairs, democracy will be a farce. That was why Rajiv Gandhi brought in the Panchayati Raj scheme, enabling the gram panchayats to get central funds direct, without the mercy of the intervening State Governments. Though it is a bit of erosion of powers of the State Governments, it could not be opposed as the beneficiaries were the rural masses who constitute the majority.

In the present system of our democracy, MLAs and MPs are directly elected by the people. The village panchayats and zilla parishads have no voice or say in the formation of the government. There is also no link between these rural institutions of democracy, and the actual governing body. At present, the voice or vote of the villagers is scarcely heard or reckoned in the process of election. Mere voting as one among the lakhs of voters cannot bestow any worthwhile recognition. Mr. Kashyap's proposal may set right this handicap. The proposal can be a logical follow-up of Rajiv Gandhi's panchayati raj.

It is an irony that those who favour the present direct elections for MLAs/MPs are not able to see its efficacy when the talk of Presidential type of governance is even casually suggested.

It is not fair or prudent to smell a rat in everything that the BJP does or says. The proposal need not be blindly opposed, because Ayub Khan had also favoured it.

N. R. Sathyamurty,

Bangalore

Sir, - Mr. Garimella Subramaniam's ``Undermining the Constitution'' merits serious reading. It is commendable that TheHindu has been consistent in expressing its reservations about the legitimacy and intentions behind the exercise to review the Constitution. If every new government in power comes up with an agenda like this, India's political future will not be any different from that of many of our neighbours. Only people with a myopic world view could subscribe to the exercise. In fact, what characterises the dispensation that initiated this process and many of those associated with the so-called `National Commission' is this myopia.

This is what differentiates the present lot of `reviewers' from those great men and women who led us to freedom and whose sagacity, vision, imagination and the collective wisdom had gone into the making of our Constitution. Even a cursory reading of our Constitution, with a realistic understanding of our complex society, would reveal the greatness of those who bequeathed this document on which rests the institutional foundation of India.

You have to be a confirmed cynic to conclude that India sits on the verge of a major political calamity, only because we have had three general elections in four years. Forgetting the factors that have gone into this situation suits only these prophets of gloom.

Our Founding Fathers had the vision and farsightedness to conclude that even the ill-fed and illiterate Indians have the innate ability to run a democratic system in a manner accepted across the world. When Jawaharlal Nehru was asked the question: After Nehru Who?, his immediate answer was that there are 360 million Indians to take care of that. That was the kind of faith our Founding Fathers had in the common people of this country.

The President's reminder about the hidden dangers in the proposals for indirect elections should also be seen as a reassertion of this faith in the people of this country to work our democracy, in spite of the minor aberrations experienced of late. One should be wary of the far greater dangers hidden behind the agendas of those advocating a review of our Constitution.

J. Amin,

New Delhi

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