DailyPost 1641
THE UNWRITTEN CONSTITUTION
While India has a written constitution what actually operates is an unwritten constitution known to all in the areas they operate. If for some quirk of fate the unwritten one comes in friction with the written one as in the current Maharashtra case, a huge hue and cry is raised. The written legally mandated constitution keeps waiting all the time to get invoked in situations like these. And all the stakeholders then declare their allegiance to the constitution, courts and other legally mandated agencies to safeguard them. All of them are right in their own way because all are following the unwritten constitution. Who will give all the fun of life for one millionth of a chance of getting caught in a manner, where all concerned are actually forced to take cognizance.
One ex CM talks about the transfer racket. What is the norm, in times of crisis becomes a racket. That crisis also visits only once in a while, with no efforts of the agencies who are supposed to regulate, monitor, provide oversight and act. They come hunting when they are left with no choice as in the present case. How transfers are done in this country is well known to everybody but for the benign media. It is like Alice in the Wonderland. The constituencies in the country have become jurisdictional executive domains The officers might as well comply to that. How those domains operate at the cutting edge of administration is an administrative jigsaw puzzle. At times Election Commission unravels that.
Constitutional entry to positions whether by way of electoral mandate or by government recruitment is used to pay allegiance to the unwritten constitution; seamless, smooth, dynamic and real time and they have the capability to align with the changing times. Being practical is the name of the game. People who would not have seen the rule book, when they need to consult everyday, hire best of the lawyers to safeguard themselves. Everybody is out to actually safeguard the unwritten constitution through lip service allegiance to the real one, in times of crisis. Even a pandemic did not impact the functioning of the unwritten constitution at all, at a time when the state’s performance had been the worst in COVID-19 handling.
Between COVID-19 management and the other management, the latter is important. Media has gone gaga over it. For them every time is a discovery. They have been surprised in a similar manner since the day of Narsimha Rao proving his majority. Cut, commission, percentage has been the common parlance and people talk of oppression only when it goes beyond a level. Vasooli is not the creation of the last one year or so. For many years, hafta word has been quite popular. Whatever might be the intricacies of the game is immaterial, what is the norm is a part of our DNA, our culture, might be by now custom, tradition and convention too. In deep morass we are in with no end in sight.
CONSTIUTION COMES TO LIFE FOR PRIVILEGES AND SAFEGUARDS.