Salute to our founding fathers that laid strong pillars of law and order and named it ‘The Constitution of India’. It is a legacy that every Indian should be proud of. It was the result of the practical experience and ideas of those times.
26th November 1949 is considered as a day of adoption of our constitution. This day was called National Law day or ‘Samvidhan Divas’ since 1979 but from 2015, it was renowned as Constitution Day. From that day it was considered as a measure to politics of India and a symbol of constitutional stability.
The pillars of the constitution were astonishing and they unified India. It gave the right to vote for representatives and government. Indians were given fundamental rights of speech, association, movement, life, liberty, and religious practice. It gave India democracy and a universal franchise. It made India an organized society. Under the constitution, the state would not be partially based on religion. The marginal sections like Scheduled Castes and Tribes were provided justice and the state was assigned responsibility to lift the poor.
The constitution initially emphasized the duties of the people but later on, it was observed that the duties of citizens are a must for proper implementation of rights. This addition was hoped to give a sense of being a responsible citizen. The Constitution makers expected us to behave dutifully ready to accept that it is required for a nation to join the list of the developed countries. Many members of the Constituent assembly favored this decision.
One of the members Prabhu Dayal Himatsingka, a member of the Constituent Assembly representing West Bengal said” “I wish along with fundamental rights there were certain fundamental duties also. If we think more of our duties than of our rights, a lot of our difficulties will be over and the rights will take care of themselves and there will be no occasion to feel any difficulty for want of those rights”.
Even though the writers of the constitution have left the world still the strong impact of the Constitution makes even the corrupt politicians, military loaded with guns and bombs or millionaires bow its head against it. It is confirmed that later or sooner, justice will be done. A recent example of Maharashtra CM is a perfect example that the Constitution is above all.
But what happened to the people of India?
The citizens after 70 yrs when we are moving towards the 21st century aiming high targets to reach $5 trillion economies, we have forgotten that we have certain duties being a Hindustani.
Instead of becoming a strong supporter, we have become the biggest critic of our own country. Our habit of criticizing has closed our eyes to see the massive development our country is doing. We have become the first to point out the mistakes done by anyone. Be it our companion, friend or even the government, we are always ready to tease them and make fun of their loopholes. When the government does something, we criticize and when it doesn’t do anything then also we criticize.
For example, if we see a pile of garbage on the roadside, we blame the government to be lazy and irresponsible but never think that it is our duty also to no to throw garbage roadside. We expect to get proper water and electricity supplies but never think using these limited resources wisely.
We are one of the fastest developing countries. Our impressive achievements in industrialization and infrastructure are proof of our development and hard work. We have started adopting other ways like solar energy, electric cars, etc to save our natural resources. To save the environment, schemes like even-odd, stop stubble burning, prohibiting crackers on Diwali and Dussehra and much more have been introduced by the government but we instead of supporting have become the best fault-finders.
There are institutions and civil societies that work for citizen’s rights and are there to keep the system efficient for the citizens. But with increased living standards and in zeal to enjoy a luxury life, we are focused to know about our rights more than the duties.
Citizens of a country play a vital role in its development. We are on the verge of becoming one of the developed countries but without our citizen’s support, this dream seems impossible. It’s high time that we should understand our duties which our Constitution has assigned us 70 yrs back and should follow a positive work consciousness and leave the tendency to find the lapses. After all, it is our country and we Indians are its citizens.