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OUR VERSION OF THE ENABLING ACT

YB WEB DESK. Dated: 2/25/2021 11:38:31 AM

MARKANDEY KATJU On March 23 the German Parliament, the Reichstag, passed the Enabling Act (named euphemistically as ‘An Act to remedy the distress of the people and the State’), which enabled the German Government to issue decrees deviating from the Weimar Constitution and the law. Although no such Enabling Act has been passed formally in India, and specifically by our Parliament, yet an undeclared Enabling Act has been in operation for many years in our country. The Constitution, with its fundamental rights, including the rights of freedom of speech, liberty, equality, religious freedom, and so on, as well as the laws, are flouted openly and with impunity by various governments, the police and others, while those with authority, like the judiciary, the bureaucrats and the police top brass look the other way. For instance, people like Akhlaq Khan, Pehlu Khan, Tabrez Ansari and so on were lynched and atrocities were committed on people from the minority community with impunity. One Union Minister even garlanded the lynchers and there was a hue and cry over it in the media. Despite Article 25 of the Constitution which grants religious freedom and despite the criminal laws in India against murder and other atrocities, not much was done to those who flout the law. In Delhi, many citizens were attacked and killed during the recent unrest over the anti- Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) rally, with the police remaining silent spectators. Kafeel Khan, Safoora Zargar and others protesting against the CAA were arrested and kept in jail for long periods. In Uttarakhand, some legislators of the ruling party said during the COVID period that no one should buy vegetables and fruits from sellers of a particular community, which is a crime under Sections 153A and 295A of the Indian Penal Code. Religious polarisation and incitement to hatred has risen on an exponential level in the nation yet, no action is taken against the perpetrators. Freedom of speech, “guaranteed” by Article 19(1) (a) of the Indian Constitution, has largely been suppressed by various means e.g. arresting and chargesheeting those who speak against the authorities. As regards freedom of the media, which too was “guaranteed” by the Constitution, it too has been largely suppressed, by arrests or intimidation of journalists who are perceived as being antiestablishment and encouragement to the “godi media.” Article 21 of the Indian Constitution guarantees individual liberty. But despite this provision, liberty exists largely on paper as the arrest and long detention of social activists like the Bhima Koregaon accused, the protestors against the CAA, the Kashmiri leaders after revocation of Article 370, and those who speak against the establishment shows. During the ongoing farmers’ agitation the farmers were attacked with water cannons, batons and tear gas, though they were only exercising their Constitutional right of peaceful assembly and demonstration which all democracies enjoy. How is it that the authorities can so brazenly and flagrantly flout the Constitution and the country’s laws? It is because those who were supposed to uphold the Constitution and the laws, and protect the rights of the people, have largely become accomplices and subservient to the establishment, although they were meant to be independent and neutral. An Enabling Act is in full force in India, even if covertly.