Jethmalani pacifying propertied class8217;

NEW DELHI, DEC 21: The debate on a review of the Constitution is hotting up, thanks to Law Minister Ram Jethmalani. Jethmalani made a cont...

NEW DELHI, DEC 21: The debate on a review of the Constitution is hotting up, thanks to Law Minister Ram Jethmalani. Jethmalani made a controversial proposal yesterday while kicking off a four-day 8220;Constitution Assembly8221;: reinstate the right to property as a Fundamental Right.

Today, the reaction to the idea was rather strong. A panelist at the Assembly, senior lawyer Jitendra Sharma, who is also Secretary-General, International Association of Democratic Lawyers, seemed to wonder on whose side the minister was the haves or the have-nots.8220;The right to property is for those who want to control the levers of power. These are the same people who were against the abolition of the zemindari system. Yet we have an honorable minister who wants the right to property to be made a Fundamental Right, all in the garb of protecting the interests of the poor and the working class,8221; he said.Sharma asked: 8220;Which worker has been hit by the absence of this right in the list of Fundamental Rights? Not even the trade unionwhich owes allegiance to the ruling party would have made such a demand.8221;8220;I don8217;t know about any hidden agenda. But it seems to me that the agenda is that the propertied class must be pacified,8221; he observed.

The right to property was enshrined as a Fundamental Right in the Constitution till its deletion through a constitutional amendment in the 1970s to enable the state to acquire land to benefit the poor.According to Sharma, the reason why this right found place in the Constitution as a Fundamental Right in the first place was due to the fact that the Constituent Assembly which framed the document was 8220;dominated by the propertied class8221;.But Jethmalani thinks differently. The suggestion, he said, was 8220;pro-poor8221; as even the poor were being hit by the property acquisition laws of the Government.The debate on the review of the Constitution organised by the Bar Association of India, headed by leading Constitutional expert Fali S.Nariman, is significant when viewed in the context of Prime Minister AtalBehari Vajpayee8217;s declaration that a commission would be set up to have a second look at the 50-year-old Constitution.

Though many feel that a relook is indeed necessary, doubts are being raised about the real intentions of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance Government8217;s motives. Former chief justice of the Delhi High Court, Rajinder Sachar, is one such sceptic. 8220;I am not suggesting that some amendments to the Constitution are not overdue. But that exercise is very different from the mandate which the Government wishes to give for a total overview of the Constitution that would be a matter of genuine apprehension,8221; he says.He feels that it is not enough to say that the commission will itself decide its terms of reference. 8220;Such unrestricted mandate can raise legitimate doubts.8221;Sachar has a lurking fear that the Government may be thinking of altering the basic structure of the Constitution. 8220;That is why it would be impermissible to even purport to examine the validity of those provisions for thesimple reason that examination of matter not amendable by Parliament might indicate a hidden agenda of the fundamentalists to start decisive politics,8221; he says.

For him, nothing should be done to alter the definition of secularism. Or to seek to meddle with the present parliamentary system of democracy. Suggestions in favour of a changeover to a presidential form of government should not be entertained. 8220;I believe that the diversity of our country demands a federal structure and dispersal of political power which may be jeopardised if the power was to be vested in the presidential system,8221; he says.