- Prelims: Supreme Court, Article 25, 26 and Article 14, FDs etc
- Mains GS Paper I and II: Structure, organization and functioning of judiciary, role of judiciary in furnishing FRs etc
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
- These principles of liberty, equality and fraternity are not to be treated as separate items in a trinity. They form a union of trinity in the sense that to divorce one from the other is to defeat the very purpose of democracy,’ said R. Ambedkar in the Constituent Assembly, in 1949.
INSIGHTS ON THE ISSUE
Context
Preamble:
- A preamble is an introductory statement in a document that explains the document’s philosophy and objectives.
- In a Constitution, it presents the intention of its framers, the history behind its creation, and the core values and principles of the nation.
- The preamble basically gives idea of the following things/objects:
- Source of the Constitution
- Nature of Indian State
- Statement of its objectives
- Date of its adoption
The responsibility of the individual citizen:
- Article 51A (e) on Fundamental Duties: It makes it the duty of every citizen of India ‘to promote harmony and the spirit of common among all the people of India, transcending religious, linguistic and regional or sectional diversities.
- Fraternity: The idea of fraternity is based on the view that people have responsibilities to each other.
- French Revolution in the following terms: ‘Do not do to others what you would not want them to do to you; do constantly to others the good which you would wish to receive from them.
Inequalities in Society:
- Categories: Economic, Regional, Caste, Religious
- Socially, politically and economically excluded: It includes Dalits, Adivasis, women and religious minorities.
- Uneven economic development and progress: Resulting in uneven levels of education, employment, social cohesion and contentment.
Conditions Precedent for the Successful Working of Democracy:
- Absence of glaring inequalities
- Presence of an opposition
- Equality of law and administration
- Observance of constitutional morality
- Avoidance of tyranny of majority over minority
- A functioning of moral order in society
- Public conscience
Way Forward
- Regional diversity: A Candid assessment of the state of the Republic makes us cognate on evidence of regional diversity, assertion of linguistic identity and emergence of diverging political orientations.
- Article 51A(e) of the Constitution: It does not differentiate between citizens in any of the categories and makes it an all-encompassing duty.
- Article 51A ambit is universal: Its observance, by the same logic, has to begin at the base of the ladder of citizenship rather than the top but does not spare the leadership from the obligation to promote and practise it.
QUESTION FOR PRACTICE
- The spirit of tolerance and love is not only an interesting feature of Indian society from very early times, but it is also playing an important part at the present. Elaborate.(UPSC 2017)
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