Open Access Research Article
PREAMBLE: THE BASIS OF POLITICAL SYSTEM OF INDIA
Published Paper
Article Details
PREAMBLE: THE BASIS OF POLITICAL SYSTEM OF INDIA
AUTHORED BY
- JUHI MISHRA
Abstract:
Though the political system of the
country changes with the change in the decade and era but in the recent times
the said system has seen tremendous fluctuations. Though the system is dynamic
in nature but the changes should be inclined towards the right path. The right
path is declaratory of the fact that things goes well and the society remains
pacific and intact in nature. The
violence, uprisings, hatred, intolerance, casteism, criminalization of
politics, etc. has created a threatening factor to the peaceful co-existence
and proper governance of the country.
The disturbing elements are few but are influential. Thus, ultimately
creates the mental and social disturbance and ultimately the adverse effect to
the peace and security of the nation. This is the signal of the fact that the
importance of proper and effective governance should be revised and also be
told to the people. The fact that the Constitution of India is the grund norm
and every Acts and provisions derive their authority from it is not ignorable.
This is needed to be well appreciated. The preamble of the Indian Constitution
is mirror of the well established principles of the Constitution. The ideals
enshrined in it is the thing which is needed to be well maintained so that the
basic structure of the constitution as well as that of the political system
remains intact and well protected. Thus, an in-depth analysis of the preamble
and the mutual relationship of the preamble and the political system is needed
to be discussed.
I. INTRODUCTION:
Constitution constitutes the
framework and the backbone in the governance of the country. The guiding force
of the governance of the state besides the Constitution is also inclusive of
multiple forces which together results in the proper and effective working of
the country. The ancient earlier civilization was of nature state. In the
nature state there was no protection to the life, liberty and property of the
human. For the purpose of seeking the protection they grouped together to form
the community. These small communities together surrendered their rights
towards the head of their community for the purpose of the overall protection.
As stated by the learned jurist Thomas Hobbes, the head was having the absolute
right and thus he called him the “leviathan”. He was vested with the duty of
protecting the members of his community and thus all the persons vested their
absolute faith in him. The things got reformed with the time and the State
meanwhile in the stage of development witnessed the kings and the ministerial
powers. Regardless, to say almost every civilization went through the stage of
witnessing the rule of kings and councils and the ministerial rules. Even after
further societal development the rule of the head remained the same. The only
difference it saw is that the form and shapeof the rule varied with the
societies. That is to say, some of it be the oligarchy or the monarchial form
of government or be it the westminster form of government. The form changed but
one thing remained the constant, i.e., the societal pressure behind the rule.
Though in the form of monarchy the societal pressure almost got neglected due
to arbitrary powers but talking about the democratic form of government the
societal pressure holds an upper hand. In such a case the whole governance
revolves around the political system of the State.
In every political system especially in India
there are few elements which are formal and informal in nature. The formal
element being the constitution and the informal elements being the pressure
groups, political parties, existing political scenario, etc.. The political
system can be brought into force only with the combined forces of these two
elements and the seclusion of one element from the other will adversely affect
the whole system. Thus, along with these non-constitutional elements, the
political system also gets affected by the by the social, cultural, economic,
historical and constitutional elements. The
constitution forms the formal structure while the other elements form the
informal structure.
Regarding the context of the Indian
scenario, the Preamble to the Indian Constitution provides for the underlining
of the political system of the India.
Before the commencement of the Indian
Constitution there was prevailing dominance of the single party but after the
commencement of the Constitution there emerged various political parties and
pressure groups from different part of the country. These newly emerged
political parties and the pressure groups emerged out of new ideologies and
aims and objectives and aspirations. This resulted in the tussle between the
political dynamism and the socio-cultural behavior of several elements which
laid discernible effect on the political system.
Even, the ruling parties made several
attempts to re-frame the constitution via the constitutional amendments
intending to re-shape the political system. But all the attempts subjected to
the basic structure of the constitution. The basic structure of the
Constitution tells about the normal and the basic aims and objectives of the
Constitution and that are what are needed to be protected for the sake of
proper governance of the country. As propounded by the great jurist, Kelson,
the Constitution is the grund-norm, which ultimately works as the guiding force
behind every law of the land. The Indian political system under one prevailing
party used to be a stable one but after the rise of various regional parties it
became unstable due to conflict of thoughts and interests.
II. Indian Political System: The Determinative Factor:
The Preamble to the Indian
Constitution is based on the ‘Objective Resolution’ passed by Pt. Jawahar Lal
Nehru in the Constituent Assembly on December, 13, 1946. This is the Preamble
which lays down about the objectives and aims of the Indian Constitution and
what were the elements which the fore-fathers of our constitution wanted to
achieve. That is why the Preamble is considered for the basis of the Political
System of the country. The Constitution makers envisaged the ideals as
enumerated in the Preamble for the policy making of the country. The future
policies and the planning of the country are dependent on the tenets which are
enshrined in the Preamble. As quoted by Pandit
Thakur Das Bhargava, “The preamble is the soul of the constitution”.
This is the reason that all the governmental organs and the institutions owe
their origin to the Constitution and derive their powers from the said
provisions.[1]
II.1: Relevance of Preamble: For the every work which is carried out by the human kind
there is some sort of the aim which is intended to be achieved. The
constitution framers while framing the constitution aimed to achieve the grund
norm which can be beneficial for the whole country and also for the millions of
the people living herein. Therefore, for the same purpose they placed the
preamble in the beginning of the constitution so that it can reflect the basic
ideals enshrined in the constitution. Unlike the other Preamble, i.e., of the
statues, it was the Preamble of the Constitution and thus, was given proper
relevance by the Constitution makers. It was first to be introduced in the form
of objective resolution and passed and last to be adopted. Therefore, it is
also regarded as, “ ‘a key to open the mind of the makers’ of the constitution
which may show the general purposes for which they made several provisions in
the Constitution. ”[2]. The words which are encoded in the Preamble
are wisely chosen so that the government institutions while framing any policy
and laws should upkeep the basic elements enshrined therein. The words like
“Sovereign, Socialist, Secular, Democratic, Republic” are the ones which try to
show about the nature of the Preamble and the other elements sows about the
mind of the framers so that the basic structure remains intact.
II.2. Preamble as a part of Constitution: Form the time since when the
Constitution was adopted it was thought that just like the preamble of the
statute is just an introductory part, the same was considered to be with the
preamble of the Constitution. In other words, the preamble was not considered
as part of the Constitution. The Supreme Court in Berubari Union (1), re,[3]
did not considered the fact that the Preamble was introduced in the Constituent
Assembly and then discussed upon and then passed by the Assembly. It was duly
adopted after the adopting and enacting the Constitution. This is the evidence
of the fact that the framers of our Constitution were taking the preamble as a
guiding principle in framing the provisions enshrined in the Constitution. Thus,
it was held by the Hon’ble Court that, “preamble is not part of the
Constitution.”[4]
Later on, when the constitutional
history was given much relevance and the facts were brought into the notice of
the court then the apex court in the case of, Kesavananda Bharati vs. Union of India[5] ,
held that, “the preamble of the Constitution was part of the Constitution and
the observations to the contrary in Berubari Union case were not correct.”[6] In the same case it was it was also held that
Preamble is the Basic Structure of the Constitution. Also, in State of U.P. vs. Dina Nath Shukla[7],
it was held that Preamble is part of the Constitution it is also part of the
basic structure.
III. Nature of Preamble:
The preamble of the Indian
Constitution holds good the two aspects, firstly, that the source of the
Constitutional power is derived from people of India. The phrase “We the people of India…adopt, enact and give
to ourselves this Constitution”, is clearly evident of the fact that the
source of Indian Constitution is derived from sovereignty of people of
India. Secondly, the nature of the
Preamble is explanatory from the words used in the Preamble itself, like, “Sovereign, Socialist, Secular, Democratic,
Republic.”
III.1.: India
being a socialist state, lays emphasis on the fact that all the resources of
the country are equally distributed. It is also emphasized that no accumulation
of the resources could take place and hence, every person gets the equal access
to the resources irrespective of any discrimination based on any of the
factors, be it social, economic, etc.
III.2.: Secularism
in India is different as compared to other western countries. In other
countries the secularism means the total segregation of the relation between
state and religion. On the other hand in India the secularism stands for
respect to all religion. The state has no religion of its own and it pays equal
respect to all the religions. The meaning which can be used for the term secularism
is not separation of state and religion but it is “??????????? “, i.e., respect to all the religion
without having its own religion. Though the word “secular” did not find is
place originally in the Constitution, but the legislature for the effective
governance of the political system of the India, inserted the same in the
Preamble via 42nd Amendment
Act, 1976. Further to strengthen the
concept of the secularism the Hon’ble, Supreme Court in the case of S.R.Bommai v. Union of India[8], declared “the secularism as the unamendable
basic feature of the Indian Constitution.”
III.3: Preamble
also declares India to be a republic. India is republic in the sense that the
office of the head of the state are subject to election. Unlike many other
countries where the office of the head of the state are of hereditary nature,
thus they could not be republic, India chose to be republic by creating the
elected office system of the head of the state.
III.4: The
preamble to the Indian Constitution declares India to be democratic
country. It means that all the powers of
the government making vests with the People. It grants the check system to the
people of the country so that if the government does not work well then the
people can overthrow the government and hence the government is responsible to
the people of the country for its acts or omissions.
III.5: The
preamble to the Constitution expressly provides for the “Justice- Social, Economic, Political”[9] The political justice ensures the
participation of all the persons of the society in the political activities and
to ensure the political rights of the persons of the country. The instances of
the political rights being, right to contest election, right to exercise the
voting rights irrespective of the discrimination. But the fore fathers of the
Constitution were not ignorant of the fact that the political justice without
the economic and social justice is a vague concept and thus, they enumerated
the social and economic justice in the preamble so as to ensure the political
justice. All three goes together. The economic justice aims to the prevention
of the accumulation of the resources in few hands and to provide basic minimum
necessities to all the persons. In the social justice, the aim sought to be
achieved is that to prevent the discrimination to any particular section of the
society and to provide the helping hand to the weaker section of the society so
as to bring them at par with the rest of the society. For this purpose there
comes Article 15, 16, 17,18, 23,24, etc. to the rescue of the weaker section of
the society.
III.6:
Equality as envisaged in the Constitution is about both “equality before the
law” and the “equal protection of the laws”. The quality as given in the
constitution lays down about the fact of non- discrimination among the various
sections of the society and of the fact that no one should be subject to
discrimination as well as no one should be subject to special privilege. The
exceptions which are given of the concept are well founded and are guided by
the principles of rule of law.
IV. Characteristics of Indian Political System:
IV.1: Relation of caste and politics: India gained independence due to struggles and hard
work and brotherhood of the people of the country. The time before when India
got independence, the only thing which lingered in the mind of the people was
to achieve the independence anyhow and to make India an independent country.
But the moment the Britishers left, the internal conflict began to take place.
The biggest conflict was the capture of power. Few political leaders were
behind the powerful and influential powers so that they ca rule the country.
This gives rise to the lucrative policies and the metal framework of the people
was that the India is now a democratic Country so they must achieve the mass
support. This gave rise to the fact that rise of casteism began to take place.
Due to this reason many new political parties were created based on casteism. Behind
the refinement of the down-trodden classes, casteism was silently fused into
political system.
IV.2: Bureaucratic Dominance: The unstable political system in India has given rise to the
strong bureaucratic powers in the country. The bureaucracy is responsible for
the implementation and the execution of the plans and policies of the
government and hence they create much pressure on the government of the country
and hence, are given much importance in the country.
IV.3: Dynamic political System: The Indian political system is so dynamic that the need and
demand of the time can be fulfilled by the political parties. Even the
multiparty system creates such an environment that if any need and demand is
created in any section of the society a new political party fulfilling the aims
and the aspirations is formed. Indian society has seen such rise of the
political parties many times.
IV.4: Capitalist Influence: After independence the capitalist class has got the chance to
enhance their power in the political sphere also. Few of them got the positions
in the government and few of them got the chance to create an influence in the
government so that they can bag the lucrative tenders and contracts from the
government. Also, the capitalist class offer to fund the political parties in
their policies and election campaigns.
This created the ultimate influence of the capitalist class in the
political sphere.
IV.5: Criminalization in the politics: The ill known fact that the political leaders are not
seen with the respect except a few is because of the fact that the leaders
create a sense of the fear in the mind of the people especially in the mind of
the people of their constituency. They do so because of the fact that they
elect him from the same constituency from tenure after tenure. Also the fact
that power corrupts and the absolute power corrupts absolutely. This made the
overall political system criminalized and hence, the various acts and provisions
prohibited the persons having the criminal background from contesting the
elections.
V. Way Forward: The political system in India is a dynamic feature and thus it changes from time to time. With every decade it
changes in some of its form and shape. Preamble to the Indian Constitution is
just a determinative factor and the prohibitory guideline which limits and
watches keenly on the every acts and actions of the political shape. Outside
the scope and ambit of the preamble, nothing can be carried out. The concept of
casteism in the politics is the most threatening object to be achieved because
it does not support the equality concept but it does support the discrimination
concept as the casteism creates discrimination and hatred in amongst most of
the community. This creates the rift among various groups of the society which
is harmful for the peaceful co-existence. This needs to be regulated by the
Election Commission as they can be given power to regulate the registration of
the political parties based on the aims and objects sought to be achieved by
them. Moreover, the various financial regulatory bodies like SEBI, Enforcement
Directorate, etc. can be given power about the keeping of the eye on the
funding of the various political parties and their expenditure and thus to
prevent the capitalistic influence in the political sphere. Also the
bureaucratic dominance has to be controlled and should be limited. Thus, the
political environment of the country has to be managed and controlled in such a
way so as to bring it to the level of peaceful co-existence and to achieve the
dream which the fore- fathers of the Constitution have dreamt of.
Article Information
PREAMBLE: THE BASIS OF POLITICAL SYSTEM OF INDIA
Authors: JUHI MISHRA
- Journal IJLRA
- ISSN 2582-6433
- Published 2023/06/16
- Volume 2
- Issue 7
About Journal
International Journal for Legal Research and Analysis
- Abbreviation IJLRA
- ISSN 2582-6433
- Access Open Access
- License CC 4.0
All research articles published in International Journal for Legal Research and Analysis are open access and available to read, download and share, subject to proper citation of the original work.
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of International Journal for Legal Research and Analysis.