By Salil Saroj Democracy in India: Legislative Officer New Delhi Indian Constitution Empowers the Dream of Every Indian e-mail: [email protected] Salil Saroj It is on the floor of the House that certain primary processes are set into motion which has the capacity to open the way to orderly changes and innovations in public life. Since in the parliamentary form of government, the Executive is the creation of the Legislature and the Legislature exercises control over the Executive, no Government can afford to ignore the directions given by the Legislature. Successive governments, through various legislations and policy interventions, have striven to realize the dream of the Founding Fathers of the Constitution to facilitate a Welfare State. As a result, we have achieved much and succeeded in many areas; yet, there are many other areas that still need focused attention. Policy interventions like empowerment of women, special emphasis for education of the girl child, Swachh Bharat Mission, direct transfer of financial and other subsidies, benefits and services to the citizens, increasing banking facilities to the poor and those who were not covered by the banking system, policies and programmes for the benefit of farmers, social security schemes for the marginalised people, etc. will go a long way in realising the dream of the Constitution makers. Mahatma Gandhi had visualized the new Constitution of India in terms of universal values applied to the specific and special conditions of India. As early as in 1931, Gandhiji had written: “I shall strive for a Constitution which will release India from thralldom and patronage. I shall work for an India in which the poorest shall feel that it is their country in whose making they have an effective voice: an India in which there is no high class or low class of people, an India in which all communities shall live in perfect harmony. There can be no room in such an India for the curse of untouchability. We shall be at peace with the rest of the world neither exploiting nor exploited.... This is the India of my dreams for which I shall struggle”. The Constitution empowers the people as much as the people empower the Constitution. The framers of Indian Constitution very well realised that a Constitution, no matter how well written and how detailed, would have little meaning without the right people to implement it and to live by its values. And in this, they placed their faith in generations that would follow. A TO Z INDIA ● MARCH 2023 ● PAGE 17