The Indian demography is passing through a lean phase, a country which is home to 133.92 crores (2017) according to the World Bank, United States Census Bureau. This gigantic population comes with mammoth challenges with respect to their needs in their lives. Amidst all these perplexing figures India stands at chaotic stature in the contemporary times that the government must draw their attention towards those national topics of concern before this takes a negative course for public opinion in the political system. Moreover, the time is taking its vicissitudes as the Indian educational institutions are witnessing apocalyptic narratives of change and framing as the guardian of constitutionalism in India.
The civil society holds greater concepts of secularism, justice, equality, freedom and dissenting in a democracy which holds the constitution of India as the supreme one. Recently, In the past, there are few pieces of legislation which were passed accordingly that too with a prompt response to make the acts a law in the books of rule of law. Those laws which arise questions of constitutionality is an unsmiling concern of legality in the domain of rule of law. The pieces of laws passed and signed by the parliament and the president respectively arise questions of the keen attitude of using arbitrary power in the government and intention to ride roughshod over citizens of the country. This is where the divisive politics and particular ideology is tinted in the legislature.
The amendments to the laws such as, UAPA, NIA, CAA are of highly discussed laws that don’t sync with the constitution of India. Few of them abrogates the famous cases of the supreme court one such being, the Keshavnanda Bharti Case vs State of Kerala of 1973 which fetched the basic structure of the constitution of India and it also scratches the fundamental rights of the constitution, to be precise, Article 14 majorly. This is where it constitutes the rudimentary question that the constitutionalism is at stake.
Amidst all these the recently smithereens of legislation passed by the parliament and duly signed by the President of India, the citizenship amendment bill which is now an act is making all the unacceptability as a law in the civil society by the citizens of the country. Post and pre the bill becoming a law the country is witnessing massive protests and dissents amongst the civil society in India.
This is a new low to the foundational values of the constitution of India which is secularism as its staunchest belief in the constitution granted to the citizens of the country, Furthermore, the ideology which is in making the vibrant country which has its diversity at its finest quality is being crunched by those who don’t want India to send message in the world of unity and diversity. A democracy is more powerful when one gets the freedom of dissenting in the political, socio-economic decisions of the government. A government which is unchecked by the citizens through its policies is a government in power by throttling public reasoning in its democracy.
A political party who holds power in the centre comes with political goals and opportunism, some hold soft and some goes hardcore to its fullest extent of drawing the line of ideologies and chasing opportunity in the country. A political system is premeditated in a democracy where citizens are participating in the daily works of the governance that holds the government accountable. In contemporary India, there are vital questions which need urgent notice of the policymakers and think tanks in the government which shall come irrespective of ideology and ill-will in the governance.
The question of the hours is, what is India doing to achieve 5 trillion economies? Why is GDP taking long term slow down? Why are the prices of the fuels being High? What is the government policy for farmers and their free fertilizer? What is the government doing for quality higher education in India? Why is the health system so much weakening? This is where the government should use all its oomph when the nation is leaning towards a not so brighter morning. It was P Chidambaram opinion piece that he rightly puts, As we the people of India will be celebrating the 70th anniversary of the Indian constitution on 26th January 2020. It becomes obligatory to ask some serious questions now: who has got social justice and who has not? What is economic justice and do all citizens get economic justice? Even when all citizens have a political vote, do all get political justice? It is the Constitution of India that has resolved to secure to all its citizen’s JUSTICE, social, economic and political rights and equality. A democracy gets stronger when its citizens have questions to ask the government who are responsible for their welfare
It’s high time that the government should stop Chery picking policies that don’t holistically support the national interests but only regulate the unwanted political goals and clout the selective ideologically briefed people.
The students and their democracy
Contemporary India is gearing up with lots challenges for the government one being the most is the students of the country, they are in the complete cognitive path of holding a strong duty of opposition in the country, which shall sadly be stated that the opposition is failing with astounding failed narratives. The opposition is also analysing the contemporary chaos in the nation with cost and benefit analysis for its vote banks in India. The students of educational institutions in India primarily are JNU, AMU and JMI are making everyday headlines. They have witness violence and stifling of their dissenting ideas and voices in the campus by the rule of totalitarianism and authoritative usage of power in the centre. There were many important issues and concerns the students had with themselves before the government came with the piece of an arbitrary piece of law such as the citizenship amendment act.
The educational institutions are meant to work with strong innovative creation of narrative in developing India. Discussions, debate and arguments building in the country is the cornerstone aims of institutions in the country. As Amartya Sen in his book the argumentative Indian rightly says ” Discussions and arguments are critically important for democracy and public reasoning”. The Universities and institutions of the nation work as the safest space of cognitive and rational approach to decision making in the country and paving the way forward towards a developed and prosperous country. Here is the critical question to address, who are those who don’t want the institutions to support the nation? Why is not the government supporting free minimum higher education in the country? What is stopping the government to use a higher amount of budget in the education sector? These questions are ought to be answered by those who make policies in the government irrespective of the ideology and hate-mongering.
Force and deliberately use of non-lethal weapons, politics and ideology painting in the educational institutions will not calm the present situation in the national education institutions. Those who study in these institutions are the students who read all those public policies which influence the daily life of citizens and that shall meet the flavour of justice in the civil society. The students of the nation are coming out as the custodian of constitutionalism and practising stalwarts of dissent in the Indian democracy, any force or State-sponsored propaganda will do no good to the stationed situation but shall worsen it furthermore.
The quest of education and making the government accountable for its acts of unjust has become the trending and reliving of the concept of the idea of India by the students of the nation. History is on record; the students of the nation has made Indian democracy more participatory than a political party in the country. The ongoing protests by the students of the nation all over the country come with dozens of solemn questions for the government. The government should work hastily to address them ignoring and dropping their ideological egoism. They (students) build healthy narratives for the future. Sabotaging the idea of education will not do any help to any particular political ideology of parties in the country but it will tear the progress of the nation into pieces, throttle dynamic of policies in the ground, scatter the rationality in the civil society and a total said war on basic human needs as education will be legitimised.
(The views expressed above are the author’s own. Newsd neither endorses nor is responsible for the same.)
