Justice for all, from the PMO

After the Emergency, the Constitution was amended so that the fundamental right to life and liberty could not be suspended even during the Emergency. But India8217;s finance and economy continued to turn their face away from the majority. The directive principles of the Constitution, telling every ruling politician and administrator as to how and for whom the country8217;s resources are to be used, became victims of the trickle-down economic theory of Planning Commission economists and the Union Finance Minister. Neither Parliament nor any governmentbothered to even set up a committee on the implementation of the Directive Principles of the Constitution declared to be fundamental in the governance of the country.

The Supreme Court set upon this tasks and issued binding orders ranging from end to police atrocities to pollution control. Today primary education, clean air, water and soil, mud housing, minimum of nutrition, medicare and livelihood are all fundamental rights declared by the apex court that had laid down codes for arresting citizens, prostitutes, and children. The court has punished officers in contempt, got work done under the threat of contempt and even declared that the lack of money is no answer to the denial of fundamental rights. But the apex court forgot to apply the directive principles to itselftransparency and accountability in its appointments, transfers and administration. Those daring to point this out face the threat of the use of contempt of power and judicial displeasure in various forms.

The result was that while the apexcourt travelled the whole ambit of the Constitution and the rule of law, its judgments in the absence of a monitoring and follow-up machinery within it had no teeth. Its own legal aid programme funded by Parliament had no plan of action to assist in such implementation. The National Commission on Women, Human Rights Commission, Minorities or Scheduled Castes cannot today produce district-wise charts of the degree of implementation of the Supreme Court and high court judgments in their respective fields. All these statutory commissions have no document to show the impact of liberalisation policies on their constituents when it is economic policy that shapes the lives of citizens without their consent.

Consequently, the implementation of the charter for a life of human dignity promised by the Constitution and turned into a binding judicial norm by the apex court, had become dependent on the same ruling politicians and administrators against whom the citizens approached the court in the first place.

Thehuman rights cell in the PMO can be the prime engine of political leadership and change to turn the rule of law and the Constitution into a reality at least for the children of India. No political party would want to commit suicide by being seen opposing it. Its district-wise monitoring of the fundamental rights situation and a regular weekly or fortnightly reporting to the nation enables the Prime Minister to fashion a national agenda that compels power holders into the service of the people. Several judges and prospective Chief Justice are already prisoners of lawyer8217;s bodies.

The human rights cell gives the Prime Minister a chance to show the way how such trade and commerce in the name of human rights can be ended, how the Constitutional power of the Union under Article 356 and to give instructions to states as also the office of the Attorney General of India can be put to the service of the poor, mandated by the Constitution. Nothing can better ensure the unity of his government and of India than ahuman rights Prime Minister who recognises that under our Constitution finances and economics are the hand-maidens of something larger than human rights 8212; justice for all.