CONSTITUTION NEEDS OVERHAUL

                                       
Dr K Prabhakar Rao

                    Indian constitution drafted
by the constitution assembly and approved by the leaders on behalf of this
nation has out lived its utility and needs thorough overhaul if not scrapping
all together. When equipment needs too many repairs that is not cost effective,
it is generally scrapped. Similarly when the equipment is outdated and does not
satisfy the requirements of the latest needs is also weeded out as outdated. In
some cases such items are retained in museums too. Indian constitution is no
different. It is no doubt out dated, written with short sight, accepted in
hurry and amended N no. of times for circumventing the obstacles enroute. It is
time it is sent to a museum to be stored along with ancient scriptures written
on palm leaves. The correct place for it is the Library established at Tanjore
by the great illustrious Maratha ruler Sharabhoji II who was the king of Tanjavur
kingdom and a great   person who
patronized arts and literature. He was a man of letters. The dynasty was
founded by Venkoji, step brother of great Chatrapathi Shivaji Maharaj who
established Hindu empire in Maharashtra in 17
century.

              The Indian leaders have not left any stone
unturned since the granting  of
independence by the Englishmen in exploiting the people through caste, creed,
language, regional feelings and religion. 
The leaders can be counted on fingers who cared for  national spirit and remained loyal to
national well being. Gone  are the old
days where there was some national spirit. Usually the names of Gandhi, Nehru
and Patel are narrated and pushed down throats of kids at school who belonged
to this category. Name of subhas Chandra Bose is safely forgotten. The
constitutional assembly framed something in black and white so that the people
could practice some civilized form of governing. They took good things from
practicing democracies and probably that was the best they could do in the
available time. On the other front, they did not   anticipate and foresee the degradation that
would be engulfing the Indian leadership in the coming years. In fact the power
hungry leaders who hastened the declaration of independence by short cuts were
waiting like vultures at the dying animal eager to devour into bits of bones as
soon as the spirit left the animal. Whatever little morals were left soon
vanished after Gandhi’s death and after Shastris death every thing was bizarre
and was free for all. Every one wanted power by hook or crook Dynastic
succession of Nehru family drove the last nail in the coffin of Indian
democracy. It has remained a name sake democracy while every thing centered on
a nucleus wielding power by virtue of family name. Although MK Gandhi led
congress party to freedom, the spirit disappeared after his death and name of
Gandhi remained only for exploitation of masses. Sanjeeva Reddy, Atulya Ghosh,
Nijaingappa, Morarji Desai , SK Patil, 
Krishna Kant, Chadrasekhar  parted
ways with congress due to politicking and 
Indira Gandhi was instrumental in destroying the democratic functioning
in the country. . Under her leadership, factional feuds, regional hatred, and
bickering, degradation of moral values in politics have come to stay and became
part and parcel of Indian democracy. 
From then onwards, there was no looking back. Destruction of democratic
system was complete.  Indians have
mastered the art of politicking without national interest and the country has
been reduced to  the state of political
chaos although India
claims that it  is a mature democracy in
the world on par with any western country. These are  disgusting comparisons.

            Where does the mistake lie for
today’s situation? Obviously the fall in public standards, hunger for power, and
lack of moral values in all walks of life are the root causes for the downfall.
Senior citizens claimed that Gandhi warned after independence that blind practice
of purely western methods would spell doom to the country and he even
recommended dissolution of Congress party and probably he knew the power hungry
jackals waiting at the grave. If these were true, then credit must go to Gandhi
for the fore thought and for the warning he gave. However Gandhi was already
becoming an embarrassment for the rulers. His advice went over deaf ears. Alas!
The poor old man was sent to heavens with a pistol shot probably to a great
relief to most of the leadership who might thought that Gandhi was a pain in
the neck and a sore at wrong place and that his role was over. Nehru who
wielded much clout in masses carried on the burden till 1964 not before completely
bungling the Kashmir and Chinese affairs. The
nation has been gifted the eternal sores to bleed like Kashmir
and Chinese Problem by his much glorified vision. With Shastris death all was
over. It became free for all. A new era was unleashed with Indira Gandhi donning
the mantle and she soon imposed emergency with the help of a puppet President.
Mushrooming of  alternate parties became
a trend to capture power.  The first
Janata government was successful in throwing out congress rule. But the
ambition of Morarji Desai and Charan Singh and Raj Narain ruined the new
government and she returned to power. She being a great manipulator projected
and boosted up Sant Bhiderwale in Punjab and
soon the devil tried to devour the master. The result was military action on Golden Temple
and subsequent killing of Mrs. Gandhi by her guards. Massacres of Sikhs around Delhi was the outcome
soon with generating of bad blood between the communities. Even today, the
culprits are not punished and the trials became a joke on the nation. Akalidal
established its grip over Punjab. Release of
Mandal report by PM VP singh divided the society very seriously and boosted the
caste politics. This gave birth to Bahujans and kanshirams who soon entrenched
themselves in society. Caste divisions  in society became complete.

                           In south India, Tamils
always tried to maintain their identity and refused to merge. Periyar Ramaswamy
naikar   in the early years after
independence even threatened secession from Indian union over imposition of
Hindi and threatened that he would establish a separate Tamil country. The
leadership in Delhi
hurriedly backtracked. Tamils alienated from congress party. Local parties such
as DMK and AIDMK came up  and Congress
was vanquished and thrown out lock stock and barrel. Identity crisis resulted
in mushrooming of local and regional parties throughout India. North
Eastern States   became a head ache with increase in terrorist
actions for creation of separate home lands for Bodos, Gurkhas, Nagas, Hill tribes.
Demands for separate states came up in Maharashtra, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh,
Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh.
All these are at the cost of national spirit. In AP, Telugu Desam party
captured power  and sent Congress party on
wild goose chase for nearly two decades However congress party returned to
power   recently owing to the political
mistakes of the party.

                   Bharatayeea Janata Party although came to
power could not continue for very long and soon Congree returned to power.
Rajiv Gandhi became a victim of LTTE 
after his unwise attempt of interfering in Lankan political scene. He
was also blamed for Bofors scam. Although he has been absolved some time ago
after his death, skeletons are obviously hidden in Delhi’s cupboards.  Some day they might roll out.  The Govt of PV Narsimha Rao did balancing act after
 for five years. During last elections
although BJP reasonably did well, Congress party formed government at center
with support of nuts and bolts. BJP however has become national party and posing
a great challenge to the congress. However BJP is still seen as a Hindutva
party and all other parties including Communists gang up to keep it out of
power. To shed the image BJP also has wooed the minorities and with this its
credibility as a party that would strive for Hinduism has been affected.
Probably this is one of the reason for its failure to capture power at enter.   Muslims abet their philosophy to a very great
extent. Congress has succeeded playing minority card in this direction. The
smaller parties have not overcome their narrow outlook and are tied down by
their outdated ideologies, narrow anticipated gains than national outlook. Their
life’s ambition appears to keep  BJP out
of power They became slaves for dynasties and wait patiently for small morsels
of food and bits of bread thrown at them by the Congress party.  A person like Somanth Chatterjee who donned
Communism for decades stuck to his chair and was expelled by the party.
Obviously he was after chair and perks and these were greater than party
ideology for him. The regional parties 
that win few seats in center play murky games and there is a necessity
of keeping them out of center.

                                   In Western
countries, the society is not divided on caste basis and people are literate.
In India   elections are won on dynastic faith, past
laurels, caste, creed, religion, regional feelings Linguistic ideologies and all
other extraneous considerations. Too many parties are not allowed. If regional parties
can not be banned at center, they should be banned from participating in
forming the government. Only national parties must be allowed to vote at center
in forming government. Caste based parties should be banned along with communal
parties. Those who preach sedition should be promptly banned from contesting
for any place and should be tried for treason. Their dirty acts   can be stopped by such methods. The ideal
system is to have two party democracy as recommended by Dr Abdul Kalam, the
illustrious past President for which obviously he was not given second term.
The constitution must be changed to cater for this requirement and all useless
people must be prevented from contesting. Any one with criminal record should
be shown the  gate. Those facing serious
prosecution charges should be banned till he is cleared. The post of PM or
President should not be held for more than two terms in his life time and no
ministerial post including PM and President should be accessible to a person of
foreign birth. He has to be a citizen by virtue of birth in India. It  is being practiced  in  western nations too. Unless   such provisions are made future of India would-be
at stake. Future of India
is in our  hands and no  outside country  would help us in solving our problems. The
nation should be rescued  from the hands
of power hungry  jackals who are devoid
of national spirit  and taking the  country to 
its destruction in coming years. This has to be done through changing
the constitution. This is a  naked truth.