RIGHT TO HAVE RIGHTS

From witnessing the formation of Constituent Assembly to giving up reservation on economic

basis our Parliament has seen plethora of historical changes. But it seems like the purpose of
including the Fundamental Rights in Part III of our Constitution is inadvertently not fulfilled,
since it lacks the very nature of being “Fundamental” in its existence. The begetters of our
Constitution has called the rights mentioned under Part III of our Constitution as “Fundamental
Rights”, so there must have been some provision which should have ensured its nature of being
fundamental; albeit the inclusion of Article 32 popularly known as “The Heart and Soul of Our
Constitution” was done for achieving this goal, but this Article also gets suspended along with
the other Fundamental Rights during the time of national emergency.

In the last seven decades of the independence of India, national emergency has
been foisted for three times which soberly questions the “Rights” under Part III. Also, the
complete embargo of the Fundamental Rights of the citizens of India should not be left upon
the circumspection of the Council of Ministers and there should be a provision of “Right to
have rights” under the ever evolving and organic Constitution of India. Incorporation of “Right
to have rights” under our constitution will make the citizens feel safer as their rights guaranteed
in Part III can’t be taken overnight as it was done on 25th June,1975. Each time whenever
national emergency has been imposed and the Fundamental Rights of the people have been
suspended, the country goes into the state of anarchy, swiftly the democratic government
changes its form into an autocratic and authoritative government. It not only creates a state of
fear in the minds of the citizenry during the suspension of Fundamental Rights but it almost
also creates hindrance in the development of the nation. History in itself is a testimony that
imposing national emergency and taking away the civil liberties of individuals undermines the
value of Judiciary and other democratic institutions and our holy Constitution becomes a
puppet at the hands of the leaders who could easily modify it as per their whims and fancies.
Also, media which is generally regarded as “The Fourth Pillar of the Democracy” and which
is often referred as the watchdog of the government, were also denied from their rights

As it is famously said that,” Our greatest glory is not in ever falling, but in rising
every time we fall”, so if there are some loopholes in our Constitution, we should fix it and the
provision of amendment provided in our Constitution shows some great statesmanship and
farsightedness of the members of our Constituent Assembly. When we compare the situations
of the pre-independent India with the India that faces national emergency in post-independence
era, we won’t find much differences regarding to the rights of the people. When we recall the
set of farrago rules which was made up of half truth and outright inventions of the British Raj,
we come across the conclusion that situations are almost similar when the democratic
government uses its discretion to impose national emergency and the citizens goes into the state
of nonplus condition. Addition of “Right to have rights” in the Constitution which cannot be
infringed upon ever will surely increase the sense of oneness in the diverse country like India
and it will also justify the great freedom movement whose basic motto was “to get rights”;
which cannot be encroached upon by anyone. The whole national movement for independence
revolved around this ideology which was not only confined to get independence from the
British Rule.

So, to achieve the goal of making the Constitution of India citizen friendly, the
house feels privileged to re-draft the Article 359 of the Constitution as follows: -

“Whenever there is a proclamation of Emergency or any kind of Political crisis; the basic rights
ensured under Part III of the Constitution cannot be taken away by any authority.”

The addition of the said Article will also ensure that if any sort of Political crisis arises in future
like those which recently happened in Maldives and Sri Lanka, the rights of the citizens must
not be taken away. At the global level too, our nation will again set up an example by providing
authority to this unique feature.

The provision of suspension of Fundamental Rights during national emergency is a

complete fiasco and puts a big question mark that whether the ultimate sovereignty in a
conglomerate nation like India, which consists of wide diversity of culture, religion and
languages lies with the people. To ameliorate the arguments of sovereignty, Jean-Jacques
Rousseau came up with the concept of “General Will” and “Popular Sovereignty”, which
entails that the concept of sovereignty lies with the people and the time has come to reckon this
concept in our Constitution. Now we have to solve this malady and learn from the tutelage of
our great freedom fighters and instead of denigrating the concept behind “Right to have rights”,
we should stride towards achieving it.