AGENDA: Examining India’s reservation policy for socio-educationally backward classes while analyzing the political and socio-economic measures needed to address the impacts of the Emergency.

FREEZE DATE:  22/7/1978

ADDITIONAL DIRECTOR: Aryaman Pragya

Committee Email ID: loksabha.inter25@gmail.com

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“The nation is in danger. I have taken the decision to ensure that the country survives. For the survival of the nation, we have to take extraordinary measures." 

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It was with these words that on 25th June 1975, India entered a turbulent chapter that stained its history. Its constitutional structure had been undermined, an event that the forefathers had long feared. The largest democracy witnessed the suspension of civil liberties and fundamental rights, erosion of legislative authority and alteration of the basic framework of the constitution post the landmark judgement of Kesavananda Bharati v. State of Kerala, AIR 1973 SC 1461. Millions of people were confined behind bars and the Prime Minister was allowed to rule by decree. While the nationwide emergency was lifted two years later, its irreparable damage to India’s political and constitutional framework haunts the Nation. However, Indian citizens now look up to the first non-congress government to remove the mark of  ‘dictatorial rule’ from India. 

 

With a failing constitution, citizens have come to question the promised safeguards and power of the founding document. Despite over 30 years of Independence, more than 50% of India’s population is below the poverty line. Literacy rates for Scheduled Castes continue to lag 24% behind the national average, while for Scheduled Tribes the gap increases to 40%. The nation’s disadvantaged continue to live in a cycle of deprivation and poverty. Though more than 2000 backward communities had been identified in the early 1950s, the central government refused to include them. 

 

The people’s mandate has remade the nation’s power dynamics, placing an immense responsibility on the shoulders of newly elected representatives. Parliamentarians must carefully reevalute the existing reservation policies, to see which communities must be included and the extent of their inclusion. Members must further reinstate the founding fathers’ ideals and strengthen democratic principles through the Constitution (Forty-fourth Amendment) Act, 1978, ensuring that the spirit of India’s constitution remains intact. The committee has been given the overriding responsibility of bringing post-emergency reforms to obliterate the horrors of the emergency. The 6th Lok Sabha is obliged to its country and has the onus of drafting legislations that transform into indispensable reforms.

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Jai Hind!
Jai Bharat!