Rights, not duties, basis of our Republic

It is right and appropriate to reflect on the rights and duties of citizens on Republic Day when the Constitution was adopted as the defining basis of the social contract between citizens and State. We, the people, gave unto ourselves the Constitution and thereby the fundamental rights granted to all citizens by it. It is these rights that turned the people of the country from the subjects of a British colony into citizens of a sovereign republic. That sovereignty ultimately rests with the people, and these rights are at the heart of the Constitution. ‘Fundamental duties’ were added later, significantly during a period of authoritarian rule in the form of the Emergency. They are not a part of the basic structure of the Constitution and are not justiciable and enforceable, as fundamental rights are. In fact, constitutionally, there is no correspondence between rights and duties. This needs to be kept in mind in light of the recent statement made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on citizens’ rights and duties.

The Prime Minister said that the people of the country have been busy “talking about rights, fighting for rights and wasting time.” He also said that “the talk of rights, to some extent, for some time, may be right in a particular circumstance, but forgetting one’s duties completely has played a huge role in keeping India weak.” This is a very erroneous view of rights and duties and the relationship between them. Citizens’ rights, not duties, are the basis of a democracy; duties are given primacy by authoritarian regimes. The adversarial linkage between them is a construct of authoritarian governments, intended to deny citizens their rights and to enforce their writ on the people.

Fighting for rights is not a waste of time. It is unfortunate that the Prime Minister thinks so and says that talking about rights is right only under certain circumstances, to some extent or for some time. The Constitution does not limit them as he does, and empowers the citizen with them in a variously unequal society. The courts have expanded them, and a democracy matures with the evolution and expansion of citizens’ rights. The basic unit of the Constitution is the individual citizen with rights. The citizen’s duties to the nation, the community, family or other entities flow from the charter of rights that define citizenship. Duties acquire their value and relevance from rights. It is not that duties are not important, but they cannot be adversarially conflated with rights. India and Indian democracy become weak not when the citizens forget their duties but when they forget their rights and do not talk about them and fight for them. The State’s duty is to protect the rights, and the Prime Minister is sworn to protect and promote them. He has no right to downgrade them or to play them down.

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