3. Separation of Powers:
- According to the Constitution, there are three organs of the State. These are the legislature, the executive and the judiciary.
- The legislature refers to our elected representatives. The executive is a smaller group of people who are responsible for implementing laws and running the government. The judiciary refers to the system of courts in this country.
- Members of the Constituent Assembly feared that the executive might become too strong and ignore its responsibility to the legislature. The Assembly, therefore, included a number of provisions in the Constitution to limit and control the action taken by the executive branch of government as a whole.
- In order to prevent the misuse of power by any one branch of the State, the Constitution says that each of these organs should exercise different powers. Through this, each organ acts as a check on the other organs of the State and this ensures the balance of power between all three.
- The word ‘State’ does NOT refer to state governments. Rather when we use State, we are trying to distinguish it from ‘government’. ‘Government’ is responsible for administering and enforcing laws. The government can change with elections. The State on the other hand refers to a political institution that represents a sovereign people who occupy a definite territory. We can, thus, speak of the Indian State, the Nepali State etc. The Indian State has a democratic form of government. The government (or the executive) is one part of the State. The State refers to more than just the government and cannot be used interchangeably with it.
4. Fundamental Rights:
- The section on Fundamental Rights has often been referred to as the ‘conscience’ of the Indian Constitution.
- Colonial rule had created a certain suspicion of the State in the minds of the nationalists and they wanted to ensure that a set of written rights would guard against the misuse of State power in independent India.
- Fundamental Rights, therefore, protect citizens against the arbitrary and absolute exercise of power by the State.
- The Constitution, thus, guarantees the rights of individuals against the State as well as against other individuals. Moreover, the various minority communities also expressed the need for the Constitution to include rights that would protect their group.
- The Constitution, therefore, also guarantees the rights of minorities against the majority.
- As Dr Ambedkar has said about these Fundamental Rights, their object is two-fold. The first objective is that every citizen must be in a position to claim those rights. And secondly, these rights must be binding upon every authority that has got the power to make laws.
- In addition to Fundamental Rights, the Constitution also has a section called Directive Principles of State Policy. This section was designed by the members of the Constituent Assembly to ensure greater social and economic reform, and to serve as a guide to the independent Indian State to institute laws and policies that help reduce the poverty of the masses.
5. Secularism:
- A secular state is one in which the state does not officially promote any one religion as the state religion.
The Constitution plays a crucial role in laying out the ideals that we would like all citizens of the country to adhere to, including the representatives that we elect to rule us. Just like in the game of football, a change of constitutive rules will affect the game. Indian Constitution has been changed over the years to reflect new concerns of the polity. Often a major change in the Constitution means a change in the fundamental nature of the country. We saw this in the case of Nepal and how it needs to adopt a new Constitution after it has recently become a democratic society.
Note:
AT the Time of signing a copy of the Constitution at its final session.
Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru – 1st Prime Minister
Dr Rajendra Prasad – President of the Constituent Assembly
Shri Jairamdas Daulatram – Minister for Food and Agriculture
Rajkumari Amrit Kaur – Health Minister
Dr John Mathai – Finance Minister
Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel – Deputy Prime Minister
Shri Jagjivan Ram – Labour Minister.
VishVkosh 