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Nexus @
janon
Children (not you Janon), you need to learn constitutional law.
An amendment to the constitution itself is not as easy as people make it out to be. On top of that the Supreme Court of this nation has a standing ruling, which clearly states that the basic structure of the constitution cannot be altered under any circumstance.
Now there may be posters here who think that these are trivial issues in the face of an alleged popular demand for a Hindu theocratic state. No they are not trivial, in fact even if a vast horde of people "disagreed" with the principles of the constitution it would still make no difference, its nature in word and spirit are preserved under the SC's ruling and none of us have the right to countermand the SC's authority on this short of trying to get the SC to overturn its ruling- best of luck with that.
Let this be clear, you can ONLY be a loyal Indian if you follow the constitution in word and spirit. Your morality, your religiosity and your alleged saintly nature are irrelevant. Which imaginary friend up in the clouds tickles your fancy is irrelevant and so is your adherence to any and all norms of society banal or otherwise. What is relevant is that a nation at its core is NOT just "the people", it is defined by the institutions that it devolves unto the people and the document that guides all its actions- the constitution. The constitution in its nature and spirit, in the basic principles enshrined in it, is a promise to the people, said promise cannot be altered. Moreover the Constitution itself confers unto the Parliament a
limited power of amendment.
Now if you insist, contact a lawyer, the Basic Structure Doctrine is extremely clear- the basic structure of the constitution CANNOT be amended EVEN by an amendment or any action of the parliament. The twenty features defined as basic include "secularism".
In fact in response to the 24th Parliamentary amendment of 71 the SC bench in 73 made it even more clearer as to what the Parliament could do and could not. This is based on the simple and succinct principle that the power to amend does not equate to the right to destroy. Ergo while the Parliament can (under the 24th amendment) even "alter" fundamental rights conferred upon the citizens yet the Parliament will be compelled to stop short of attempting to alter the very nature of the constitution itself. Perhaps I will elaborate upon the events that transpired after 73 such as the 39th and 42nd amendment, the emergency or the Minerva Mills V. Union of India case etc. later. Till then, if anyone is interested in further elucidation, please contact @
Indischer or @
SarthakGanguly and arrange for the necessary fees to be paid for availing said service, I'm not going to trace the history of this matter and list out the details of each ruling, case and following amendment for free.
This question reminds me of a query a young poster here once made, that would the army rise up to back a populist struggle and overthrow the government in order to realize the dream of a Hindu state.
I will leave you all with the following, "Since the Constitution had conferred a limited amending power on the Parliament, the Parliament cannot under the exercise of that limited power enlarge that very power into an absolute power. Indeed, a limited amending power is one of the basic features of our Constitution and therefore, the limitations on that power can not be destroyed. In other words, Parliament can not, under Article 368, expand its amending power so as to acquire for itself the right to repeal or abrogate the Constitution or to destroy its basic and essential features. The donee of a limited power cannot be the exercise of that power to convert the limited power into an unlimited one." Mind you even Indira Gandhi at the height of her power did not have the balls to challenge the above.