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Journalism of Courage
Books that get straight to the point are refreshing. The author works hard to separate the grain from the chaff, letting the reader quickly reach the crux of the matter. India that is Bharat: An Introduction to the Constitutional Debates by P Rajeeve is one such book.
Rajeeve is currently a member of the Kerala Legislative Assembly and the state minister for law, industries and coir. He was active in state politics and came to national attention when he was elected to the Rajya Sabha in 2009. His relentless use of House rules to sharpen parliamentary scrutiny of the government made his six-year tenure in the Council of States stand apart from that of other MPs.
The parliamentary convention dictates that at the end of their Rajya Sabha tenure, the retiring MP discusses their time in the House. Rajeeve’s tenure was till 2015, and in an unrelated development, the government prorogued the Rajya Sabha to promulgate the Land Acquisition (Amendment) Ordinance. It meant that Rajeeve lost the opportunity to give his farewell address. But the speeches made by his fellow parliamentarians are a testament to his contribution to our parliamentary discourse.
Then Leader of the House, Arun Jaitley, said, “As far as we in the Treasury Benches are concerned, for more than one good reason, we will miss Mr P Rajeeve. His departure makes our job easier because whoever was in the Government, he used to keep them on their toes. Every day he was ready with one point or the other and he was not willing to let go till the last minute.”
The Leader of the Opposition, Gulam Nabi Azad, wanted Rajeeve’s iPad to help him better understand the rules. TMC’s Derek O’Brien stated that the P in P Rajeeve’s name stood for Parliament, and Shiromani Akali Dal’s Naresh Gujral wanted the government to nominate him to Parliament.
India that is Bharat is succinct and compact. In its 17 chapters, Rajeeve guides the reader through the Constituent Assembly debates to highlight how our Constitution framers deliberated on questions that still dominate public discussion. He wrote it to “investigate how the secular and democratic culture of the Constitution was formed.”
The book starts by highlighting the debate in the Constituent Assembly that led to naming our country “India, that is Bharat, shall be a Union of States” in Article 1 of the Constitution. It then traces the other documents that were precursors to our Constitution, including a private member bill that a British Labour Party MP had introduced in the House of Commons. The book also draws attention to the 15 women Constituent Assembly members and their contributions.
But Rajeeve’s book also tackles critical questions such as fundamental rights, citizenship, Kashmir’s special status, the national language, and the protection of minorities. His coverage extends to the higher judiciary and the constitutional role of the office of the Governor. He highlights the differences in opinion, the consensus and the compromise that led to the shaping of the Constitution.
Throughout the book, the reader will get glimpses of Rajeeve’s outlook on critical issues as a constitutionalist, a parliamentarian and a politician. As Rajeeve writes in the book’s introduction, “Protecting the Constitution is a prerequisite for protecting freedom, democracy and secularism. For that the Constitution has to be read in conjunction with the history of its formation.”
The writer works at PRS Legislative Research
