LDF knows neither Indian Constitution nor its own ideology!

What Saji Cheriyan said about the Constitution was in total conformity with the Marxist ideology and, for this, his party should have awarded, not punished, him.

One wonders where the ruling communists in Kerala are headed to. The other day, their Left Democratic Front government, headed by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, in Kerala had its Fisheries and Cultural Affairs Minister Saji Cheriyan out of the state Cabinet. According to reports, during an event organised by the Communist Party-Marxist's Mallappally area committee on July 3, Cherian said that the Constitution of India was "British-crafted and anti-working class." There were words, such as "secularism" and "democracy,'' herein. Nevertheless, it remained a "tool to exploit the common man."

This led to an uproar within the LDF. State Law Minister P Rajeeve cautioned , "If anyone approaches the court, and it makes an adverse remark, the minister will be forced to quit. Such a scenario should better be avoided." In Delhi, powerful CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury hoped the state leadership would take an 'appropriate' action. And before he was sacked, Cheriyan tendered his resignation to his boss Vijayan.

The LDF seems to think Cheriyan's remarks on the Constitution amounted to the contempt of this noble document. Such an argument is absolutely preposterous from the viewpoint of our Constitution. Article 19(1)(1) of our Constitution guarantees the freedom of expression as a citizen's fundamental right. This entitles any citizen of the country to criticise the very nature and functioning of our Constitution. Cheriyan cannot thus be faulted for speaking his assessment of our Constitution.

Objectively speaking, Cheriyan is not absolutely wrong to assert our Constitution is British-created. It is no secret that our Constituent Assembly that drafted the Constitution for post-Colonial India was full of British-educated people. They came to borrow heavily from the 1935 Government of India Act, which guided the British to govern the country, until 1947 when they left and India became independent .

There has been a near consensus across the informed public spectrum in the country that our Constitution is an organic document very much supposed to evolve with the realities of changing times and circumstances. This is how the successive governments in India have made amendments to our Constitution from time to time.

The LDF's treatment of Cheriyan is highly fallacious also from the viewpoint of its own central Marxist ideology. Accordingly, the communists the world over swear by the principle that the mode of production in a society governs that of relations, or, in other words, economy (infrastructure ) determines other spheres (superstructure), including politics and laws, therein.

Viewed from this perspective, what Cheriyan said was in total conformity with the Marxist ideology and, for this, his party should have awarded, not punished, him.

(Jagdish N. Singh is a senior journalist based in New Delhi. He is also Senior Distinguished Fellow at the Gatestone Institute, New York)

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