New Delhi, Jan 24 (PTI) Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar on Wednesday said there will be issues among the Executive, the Judiciary and the Legislature but they have to be ironed out in a structured manner.
He also lamented that with the legislature, some amount of “homework” needs to be done as debate and dialogue should replace disruptions and disturbances.
Referring to the imposition of Emergency, he described it as the “darkest, shameful” period of India’s constitutional history.
“We never had those in governance going to that level as to deprive millions of their fundamental rights and putting them in jail,” he said.
Dhankhar said that was also the time when the people expected another organ of the state, the Judiciary, to rise to the occasion.
“Unfortunately, for the Judiciary also it was the darkest period. Nine high courts in this country in one voice took a stand — Emergency or no Emergency, the fundamental rights of the people cannot be put on hold. They are ever alive,” he said.
He said people wish that in the ADM Jabalpur case (which arose from the Emergency imposed in India in 1975), the Supreme Court had not overturned the judgment of the high courts. Two of the judges who were part of that judgment later expressed public regret.
“But friends, there can be no regret allowed when people fail in constitutional positions. When we are in a position of constitutional authority, we have no alibi, we have no escape route. We have to vindicate the trust imposed in us by the Constitution,” he said.
Addressing an event to launch the ‘Hamara Samvidhan, Hamara Samman’ campaign of the law ministry, the vice president also pointed out that people like B R Ambedkar were conferred with Bharat Ratna quite late.
“In the same stream, and for the same cause, justice has been done to another great son from Bihar, Karpoori Thakuri,” he said.
In his address, Dhankhar said the Constitution has given the nation and its citizens everything. If the three institutions — the Executive, the Judiciary and the Legislature — remain within their prescribed limits and act accordingly, the talented people of India can do wonders, he said.
Dhankhar said everyone is in the reach of the law, but some people are in doubt.
“I am pained by events that take place when destruction of public property takes place. We take on the law enforcement agencies and declare we have won,” he said.
The vice president noted that there will always be issues among the three organs because it’s a dynamic world.
“But issues have to be ironed out, have to be moderated. They don’t have to be on a public platform. They have to be in a structured manner. But with the Legislature, we need to do some homework,” he said.
Dhankhar, who is also the Rajya Sabha chairperson, said debates and discussions have to replace disruptions in Parliament and state legislatures.
“We had a great legislation. Earlier we used to have ‘dand vidhan’, now we have ‘nyay vidhan’. But to my utter pain, the legal luminaries, the legal eagles… none came forward in the Rajya Sabha to make a contribution,” he said while referring to the debate in the Upper House on the three criminal laws which will soon replace the IPC, the CrPC and the Evidence Act.
“Your participation was not there,” he said.
The vice president expressed pain that the present generation has not seen the original copy of the Constitution that was signed by the members of the Constituent Assembly.
Noting that the original document contains 22 miniature paintings, positioned thoughtfully above each part of the Constitution, the vice president said through these miniatures, the founding fathers of the Constitution expressed the essence of the country’s 5,000-year-old culture. PTI NAB RHL
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