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Government's main aim is to ensure a fixed tenure

Tara Shankar Sahay in New Delhi

The nerve-shattering experience of being dislodged from power in mid-stride last year impelled the third Atal Bihari Vajpayee government to push for a review of the country's Constitution, top government sources said today.

"The Vajpayee government's downfall in the 12th Lok Sabha, that too by a solitary vote, was instrumental in hardening the Bharatiya Janata Party's resolve to explore a review of the Constitution if it retained power," senior home ministry officials told rediff.com

"The moves for a review began soon after the government retained power, with the Union ministry of law and justice taking the initiative at the prime minister's behest," the officials underscored.

They indicated that the government's primary purpose is to ensure a fixed five-year tenure for the Lok Sabha. National Democratic Alliance politicians have already spoken a lot about this provision.

The government was quite aware that the issue was likely to raise a storm in the Opposition. What it did not anticipate was the strong opposition of President K R Narayanan to any move to tinker with the Constitution.

Narayanan, to the disquiet of Prime Minister Vajpayee and his Cabinet colleagues, explained why he felt the Constitution should be left alone, and underscored that the recent instability in government was not sufficient ground for discarding the parliamentary form of government.

As emphasised by Vajpayee yesterday, BJP politicians have kept up their refrain for a constitutional review. Senior BJP vice-president J P Mathur said, "Since the Constitution has been amended more than 80 times, it is desirable to have a review, especially when the founding fathers could not have possibly envisaged drastic political changes which we are witnessing now."

Mathur repeated the prime minister's observation that "even in the mightiest fort one has to repair the parapet from time to time. One has to clean the moat and check the bannisters... the same is true of our Constitution."

Another BJP vice-president, who did not wish to be identified, said that even in the late Indira Gandhi's time a debate had been initiated by Congress politicians on whether the country should move to the presidential form of government. "Considering the rapidly changing world, there is no harm in exploring the feasibility of a similar system if it suits the needs of the time," he said. But he conceded that an extensive debate should continue among the people "whose verdict on the issue is going to be the deciding factor".

But the Congress today came out with a strong point-by-point rebuttal of the government's proposal to set up a Constitution review commission. Senior politician Pranab Mukherjee told reporters that Vajpayee's assertion that his government would not touch the basic structure of the Constitution was hard to swallow because neither the government nor the Supreme Court had ever codified this 'basic structure'. "There is no clear-cut definition of the basic structure of the Constitution, therefore I don't know what the prime minister is talking about," Mukherjee said.

Referring to Union Home Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani's claim that he had opposed the setting up of a new constituent assembly, Mukherjee wondered who had given the ministers in government the authority to even think of it. He underscored that the British viceroy in 1946 had appointed the Constituent Assembly under the provisions of the Independence of India Bill.

Mukherjee similarly challenged the assertions of Union Law and Justice Minister Ram Jethmalani defending the government's proposal to set up a review. "My party endorses the honourable President's suggestion to the government to give up tinkering with the Constitution since it is time-tested and has delivered the goods to the country and the people right from the time of Independence," Mukherjee added.

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