Second Republic: Securing Indians from the vagaries of the state by

Second Republic: Securing Indians from the vagaries of the state by  Sauvik Chakraverti

 A version of this article appeared in the Times of India, on 21 April 2007. 

We in India are living in a state of 'unlaw'. We are ruled by decrees, whims, diktats, military might – anything except by law. The government itself must be placed under the law if the rule of law is to prevail over the rule of arbitrary rulers, writes Sauvik Chakraverti. 

Nandigram, Naxalism, Maoist insurgencies, Kashmir, Manipur, the sealings of Delhi – all point to the fact that we in India are living in a state of 'unlaw'. We are ruled by decrees, whims, diktats, military might – anything except by law. The reason why this great nation has come to such a sorry pass is because the founding fathers of this First Republic were almost entirely socialist, and collectivist ideas on law are themselves the root cause of disorder and injustice. The collectivist idealises collectively-held properties and despises private property. A government by collectivists plunges headlong into the perpetration of injustices guided by these false principles. Sixty years down the line, the nation must see collective property as a sham, an ugly spoils system, a fraud. The nation must also see its future in a law that makes private property inviolable by all, including the government. This calls for a new constitution, a Second Republic. Instead of recalling the writings of Marx and Proudhon, the nation must remember John Locke: "Where there is no property there is no justice". And Lord Acton: "A people averse to the institution of private property is without the first elements of freedom." If we want to live with liberty and justice, a new constitution is a must. 

There is no need for electoral politics to make this happen. As with the English people in 1215, so too must our own capricious King John be made to affix his signature on a "First Statute of the Realm" that guarantees liberty, property, freedom to trade by land and sea, and civic self-government for all cities and towns. This Statute will thus be above the government, as something that the government cannot amend, by any majority whatsoever. By this, we will make our sovereign "bound by a law that he did not legislate", and this is a necessary condition for the rule of law. In other words, the government itself must be placed under the law if the rule of law is to prevail over the rule of arbitrary rulers. The 'unlaw' we suffer from today is entirely because the sovereign's ministers, bureaucrats, judges, policemen and soldiers are above the law, and are breaking it with impunity. A League of Indian Liberals is required.

Author : Mr Chakraverti is an economist.

 See also Liberty Institute, India