OPINION

Today we celebrate the 149th Birthday of Mahatma Gandhi. The Father of the Nation for the past few years has been getting unprecedented attention. The Narendra Modi Government in its four-and-half-years-long tenure has given a Gandhian name, if not character, to most of its policies and schemes.

Mahatma’s name and quotes have been variously used in the nation he helped create, to perpetuate ideas, thoughts, schemes and scams, which would have never passed his scrutiny. The UPA government launched a most ambitious village rejuvenation programme and managed to win a second term on the basis of this scheme. When the programme came under cloud for financial irregularities, it was named after Mahatma lest a successor government decide to scrap it.

Today we mark the beginning of the 150th birth anniversary celebrations of our beloved Bapu. He remains a shining beacon of hope for millions of people across the world who seek a life of equality, dignity, inclusion, and empowerment. The impact he left on human society has fewer parallels. Mahatma Gandhi connected India in letter and spirit, and in thought and action. As Sardar Patel rightly said, "India is a land of diversity. There is no land with such diversity as ours. If there was one person who brought everyone together, made people rise above differences, to fight colonialism and enhanced India's stature at the world stage, it was Mahatma Gandhi. And, he began to do this not in India but from South Africa itself. Bapu could see ahead and could understand the larger picture. He remained committed to his principles till his last breath."

Every political party, regional or national is seen in the election mode these days for the D day to arrive in the year-end for assembly polls in the four-odd states and later in 2019 for the Lok Sabha polls. New alliances are being stitched on the basis of recognition of their individual and collective political strength to organize, mobilize, politicize and convince the voter to side with them to win the electoral battle at the appointed time.

BJP is focusing on the policies and programmes implemented in the last four and a half years of its existence in power varying from the initiatives taken in the foreign and domestic arenas. Internally, it is highlighting its schemes like Ayusman Bharat, Ujjwala, Mudra, Swachhata, Infrastructure Development, Skill India, Stand Up India and Make in India and its resolve to provide homes to every poor family by 2022.

Delhi University Students Union (DUSU) results were out last week. With dust having settled, the parties should be concerned at the voting pattern, which is not moving beyond caste and regional commitments and the rapid increase in the apolitical voters pressing the NOTA (none of the above) button.

The Gujjar students remained with the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS)-affiliated Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and the Jats with the Congress-backed National Students Union of India (NSUI). Where the NSUI lost out was the Jat votes cut by Indian National Students Organisation (INSO), the enterprise of the Chautala family of Haryana.

India decided after being free from the colonial rule to opt for a constitutional mechanism based on west minster model; constituted a constituent Assembly to work out a constitution that should help construct a new age India to be governed on the principles of rule of law, equity, justice, fraternity, human dignity and liberal democratic ethos. It sought to strike a balance between political and social democracy to serve the cause of social re-engineering. This is all summated in the preamble, the fundamental rights and the directive principles of state policy.

Further, the polity was designed as per the dictates of constitutionalism. Rule making, rule execution and rule adjudication were assigned to three separate organs of the government, that is, the Legislature, the Executive and the Judiciary respectively. The functioning of the government was supposed to be broadly regulated by the canons of balance of power.