Justice Katju asks whether there is anything left to celebrate when constitutional promises lie in ruins.
I RECENTLY RECEIVED an invitation from Justice Surya Kant, the incoming Chief Justice of India, to attend the Constitution Day function to be held on 26th November 2025 in the Auditorium of the Administrative Buildings Complex of the Supreme Court of India.
The President of India, Draupadi Murmu, will be the Chief Guest, and several dignitaries such as the Chief Justice of India, Judges of the Supreme Court, the Union Law Minister, the Attorney General of India, etc., as well as several members of the Bar, will be present.
I thanked Justice Surya Kant for his gracious gesture of inviting me, but excused myself from attending, as I regard the celebration as a mere pantomime, burlesque, shenanigan, and a farce.
The speakers will no doubt wax eloquent about the greatness of the Indian Constitution—what it has done for the Indian people, etc., etc. But what is the truth?
The truth is that the Indian Constitution, promulgated in 1950, has been flagrantly flouted and torn to shreds, rendered a scarecrow—hollow and empty. It now stands stripped of real force, its substance eroded.
Instead, it acts only as an instrument to deceive people into thinking that, having democracy, they are their own rulers (when the truth is that a handful of crooks rule the country), and that they have fundamental rights (when the truth is that poverty, which is widespread in India, is destructive of all rights).
Consider this:
The Constitution ‘guaranteed’ equality among the people vide Articles 14 to 18, proclaimed as fundamental rights.
Also, Article 38(2) states: “The State shall strive to minimise inequalities in income.” Article 39(c) states that the State shall direct its policy to ensure that there is no concentration of wealth.
But what is the reality today? It is reported that just 10 Indians own wealth equal to the wealth of the bottom 50% of the 1.4 billion mostly abysmally poor Indians.
Also, minorities, dalits, women, tribals, etc., are often treated shabbily, and atrocities are committed on them, often with impunity.
So much for equality!
Article 21 guaranteed liberty. But sedition and preventive detention laws make a mockery of it, as exemplified by several concocted and fabricated cases, often instituted against people (particularly Muslims, who are often branded as terrorists and anti-national) who speak or write against the government. They often have to spend long periods in jail, e.g., Umar Khalid.
Although in Romesh Thapar vs State of Madras, a judgment delivered a few months after the Constitution came into force in 1950, the Supreme Court held that in a democracy people have the right to criticise the government, the truth is that today it is often dangerous to do so in India.
So much for liberty!
Article 25 ‘guarantees’ freedom of religion. But that did not prevent lynching of Muslims by gau rakshaks, assaulting them for not saying “Jai Shri Ram”, arresting and imprisoning them for long periods on false charges (on the basis of fabricated evidence), vandalism against churches in Delhi, or persecution of Christians in Odisha.
So much for secularism!
Article 39(f) directs the State to ensure that children develop in a healthy manner, and Article 47 directs it to raise the level of nutrition.
Yet, over 78 years after Independence, every second child in India is malnourished, many being wasted or stunted. We have the distinction of having over one-third of the world’s malnourished children. In this respect, we fare worse than sub-Saharan African countries which have historically faced such trauma.
With skyrocketing prices of food, medicines, fuel, and other essential commodities, how can poor people—who constitute 75% or more of our population—get proper nutrition?
57% of our women are anaemic.
Article 39A states that the State shall ensure justice. But with over 50 million pending cases, and cases often taking decades to decide, where is justice?
Article 41 states: “The State shall make effective provision for securing the right to work and education, and public assistance in cases of unemployment, old age and sickness.”
But our State is in the hands of crooked netas who are only interested in power and pelf, and care two hoots for this provision (probably very few would even know of its existence).
The Prime Minister, in his 2014 election campaign, promised creation of 20 million jobs annually if the BJP came to power. But it is estimated that demonetisation alone destroyed 20 million jobs, and unemployment is mounting to record highs.
12 million youth enter the Indian job market annually, but less than half a million jobs are created annually in the organised sector. So where do the remaining 11.5 million go? They end up as hawkers, street vendors, stringers, bouncers, criminals, beggars, suicides—and many girls as prostitutes.
To illustrate the level of unemployment in India: if 100 peon (Class IV) jobs are advertised by the government, there are often 5 lakh applicants, including PhD, MSc, MBA, or engineering degree holders—all begging for a menial job.
As for good education, it is available only to a few in India, and most schools are in abysmal condition.
The same can be said of the state of public health in India, despite Article 47. The rich and the mighty have access to state-of-the-art hospitals, but the masses, being too poor to go there, often have to go to quacks.
Article 43 states that the State shall endeavour to secure a living wage to workers, industrial or agricultural. But with the massive level of unemployment, and the contract system largely replacing secure employment, a worker dare not ask for anything more than the pittance he gets, lest he lose his job. And regarding agriculture, this provision is a cruel joke on the over 400,000 farmers who have committed suicide in India.
Article 48A directs the State to protect and improve the environment, but pollution levels in most Indian cities (even the capital, Delhi) have reached record heights, and our rivers are badly polluted.
The Constitution set up the system of parliamentary democracy in India on the Westminster model, but it largely functions on the basis of caste and religious vote banks.
Casteism and communalism are feudal forces which have to be destroyed if India is to progress, but parliamentary democracy only entrenches them further.
Article 19(1) grants freedom of speech to all citizens, but what use is this freedom to a person who is poor, hungry, or unemployed? Are the fundamental rights in Part III of the Constitution not illusory—and just a cruel joke on the vast majority of our people? As stated above, poverty destroys all rights, and we have massive poverty in India.
So what is there to celebrate? Cheerharan (disrobing) has been done to our Constitution, with our state institutions closing their eyes to these outrages, just as Bheeshma Pitamah did when Draupadi was being disrobed publicly.
To my mind, Constitution Day is just a gimmick, a stunt, and skulduggery. Celebrate it as much as you like, but don’t expect me to join you in this sham, farce, legerdemain, and cruel mockery of the Indian people. 
__________
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Markandey Katju
Justice Markandey Katju is former Judge, Supreme Court of India and former Chairman, Press Council of India.
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