By Anil Raturi
First, Sri Lanka, then Bangladesh, and now Nepal! Violent regime changes in these countries are sad and ominous auguries.
Article 21 of the Indian Constitution states, “No person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to procedure established by law.”
The Supreme Court of India in its judgments has underlined the importance of this article and has variously referred to it as the “heart and soul” of the Constitution and, also, called it the “procedural Magna Carta”.
It enshrines the value of procedures. In a society governed by the principles of rule of law desired objectives should always be realised through due process.
It takes ages to build the credibility of the system. This trust generates the sense of legitimacy. Which in turn over long years helps in the creation of institutions.
However, it takes only a moment to destroy institutions.
Many governments become corrupt and therefore deserve to be replaced. But in the 21st century, the method adopted to do so should be legal, which is as per the “procedure established by law”.
In a civilised world, violence is abhorrent. Solutions provided by it are short-lived. Sooner or later karma catches up.
Someone has aptly said, “Political violence is the confession of failure. It is the vocabulary of those who have exhausted both thought and conscience and who seek to replace argument with the bludgeon. Every man or woman of intellect knows that the true victories of history have been won by persuasion, by law, by the patient discipline of reason. Violence is the tool of those who cannot think and the refuge of those who cannot build.
“It is the language of a bankrupt spirit. Where moral sense has withered, where intellect has gone barren, there rises the easy brutality of force. But force is always a short-lived master. It may cow the timid, but it cannot convince; it may silence the brave, but it cannot command their loyalty. The state built on violence is a house built upon sand.
Those who take to violence against their fellow citizens proclaim their own inadequacy. They renounce the human inheritance of reason, which is our only distinction above the beasts. A society that yields to such men imperils its future, for it gives barbarism the crown that belongs to civilisation.”
Nepal’s stability is important for India. A disturbed Nepal is a problem for India, too.
For us Uttarakhandis, peace in Nepal is significant on a day-to-day basis.
Hope things don’t slide but quickly improve and stabilise. Our state has millenniums of cultural and “roti-beti” relations with Nepal. We wish them well…Godspeed!
(Anil Raturi is a retired IPS officer and former DGP, Uttarakhand.)
