India’s attorney general is wrong. Constitutional morality is not a ‘dangerous weapon’

Opinion

KK Venugopal is right that this concept is open to varied interpretation. But isn’t that also true of ideas like liberty, equality, discrimination, dignity?

 

Attorney General of India KK Venugopal | Wikimedia commons

Gautam Bhatia

Dec 20, 2018

"The attorney general is right that the concept of constitutional morality is open to interpretation and different judges might understand it differently. However, the same could be said about many words and phrases familiar to us. Liberty, for example. Equality. Discrimination. Dignity. It is, therefore, a non-sequitur to argue, as the attorney general did, that because constitutional morality is open to interpretation, it is a dangerous weapon that should be discarded. The question rather is how we should understand – and defend – the meaning of this phrase."

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Real dirt of India lies in our minds not streets, says President Pranab Mukherjee

Mukherjee cited Gandhiji's vision of India as an inclusive nation where every section of population lived in equality and enjoyed equal opportunity and said the essence of being human is 'our trust of each other'.

IndiaToday.in   |   Ahmedabad, December 1, 2015

Posted by Dianne Nongrum | UPDATED 13:27 IST

 

President Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday spoke about how the real dirt of India lies not on the streets but in the minds of the people due to their unwillingness to let go of the views that divide society into 'them' and 'us', 'pure' and 'impure'.

At a function in Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad, where he inaugurated the Archives and Research Centre, Mukherjee cited Gandhiji's vision of India as an inclusive nation where every section of population lived in equality and enjoyed equal opportunity and said the essence of being human is "our trust of each other".

"Every day, we see unprecedented violence all around us. At the heart of this violence is darkness, fear and mistrust. While we invent new modes of combating this ever spiralling violence, we must not forget the power of non-violence, dialogue and reason," he said.

"We must make a success of the laudable and welcome Swatch Bharat Mission. However, this also must be seen as just the beginning of a much larger and intense effort to cleanse minds and fulfil Gandhiji's vision in all its aspects," said Mukherjee, who is on three-day maiden visit to Gujarat.

The President has been speaking against intolerance after the Dadri lynching incident and subsequent events.

He said Ahimsa (or non-violence) is not a negative force and "we must free our public discourse of all forms of violence, physical as well as verbal. Only a non-violent society can ensure the participation of all sections of the people, especially the marginalised and the dispossessed in our democratic process."

Source: indiatoday