The Indian Constitution belongs to the people who identified three clear goals: democracy, the rule of law and social justice (including human rights). We are rightly proud of our Constitution. But the essence of a people based constitution is the working and receptivity of the institutions and processes created by the Constitution. If these fail, the working core of the Constitution erodes. Every day the news portrays vast erosions of constitutional governance. Institution after institution becoming suspect. Heinous murders in India were ignored by the police. The Jessica Lall case shows investigative and prosecutional failures. Custodial crimes continue to be reported to various human rights commissions. An overactive higher judiciary has confused judicial oversight with taking over governance. The lower judiciary shows ineptitude and corruption. When the press exposes the misadventures of the law, they are accused of ‘trial by media’. Yet it is the media that has exposed failures of justice. Courts need to refocus on their inhibiting relationship with the media. The inner strength of an institution breaks down if its processes that are created by the Constitution fail. If we cannot address this question, we will end up singing the praises of public interest litigation and ignoring everything else.

Where shall we start? Parliament is visited with walk-outs and pays insufficient attention to legislation. The Opposition’s walk-out strategy has crippled the effective working of the Lok Sabha. The cost of running the Lok Sabha is Rs 11,22,829 per hour in 2006. There are reports that 19 hours (over 10 working days) were lost in the last session in December. A senior opposition member remonstrated to me that these disruptions are part of a live democracy. Yet, Parliament is where the real work gets done. But what happens to the parliamentary process? The first of the reservation amendments to the Constitution in 1995 was not debated in the Rajya Sabha at all except to request a retiring member not to make a speech. Periodic elections are critical. But is a Parliament of walk- outs what the Indian Constitution intended? Surely this must stop now. There cannot be mob tactics inside and outside Parliament.

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