One in every of the overpassed facts is that in the ranks of the Congress occasion, despite its internal structural distortions, there are effectively-be taught, subtle and voice folk. Faded Congressman Ashwani Kumar is surely one of them. He displayed his intellectual finesse even while he used to be in parliament and while he used to be a minister of law and justice in the Manmohan Singh executive. But such is the fury in the public options in opposition to the Congress, that the virtues if any of the few folk in the occasion and the manager inch passed over. So it used to be with Kumar.
In this e book of articles published in varied newspapers and the lectures he gave reflects Kumar’s discerning options about judiciary and democracy. His reflections inch previous platitudes, and he confronts the stark choices one is forced to win in the blueprint of governance. The article, “Constitutional Ethical, Democracy and Judicial Evaluate: A Case for Balanced Constitutionalism”, published in Economic and Political Weekly in 2019, makes for instructive reading. Kumar cites from diverse and admirable authors on the diagram back, including Alexander Hamilton from the Federalist papers where well-known American politicians explained the reason of the American Structure. Kumar writes, “The Court’s vitality of judicial overview is validated really on the premise that democracy is now now not merely the rule of thumb of the majority. It is continuously relating to the protection of human rights that record ‘substantive democracy’, and attributable to this truth, its lisp in defence of human rights is now now not anti-democratic.” It is a verbalize that many politicians would hesitate to elevate. But he does now now not lean fully in opposition to the want for judicial overview. He approvingly quotes Justice Chelameswar’s dissent judgment in the Nationwide Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) case: “…to think to or bid that the judiciary by myself is anxious with the preservation of liberties and does that job effectively, is an assumption that’s dogmatic, bereft of evidentiary foundation and historically disproved…”
He also takes a mettlesome stand in opposition to torture and he is disappointed with the indisputable truth that India has now now not but ratified the UN Conference Against Torture (UNCAT), which it had signed in 1997. Commending the Supreme Court’s choice now to now not intervene with Punjab and Haryana High Court terming the 14-hour 40-minute custodial interrogation of Surender Pawar as “now now not brave” and “in opposition to the admire of a human being”. But he is uncomfortable with the court for now now not nudging the manager to legislate on banning torture. And in the case of G.N. Saibaba, the disabled professor who used to be incarcerated for 10 years sooner than he used to be acquitted by the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court in March 2025, Kumar does now now not hesitate to rap the Supreme Court’s 2022 choice “restoring Saibaba to custody after atmosphere apart his discharge by the High Court and hearing the verbalize’s allure on a vacation” as “worrisome and wholly unconscionable”.
We want voice of us enjoy Kumar to talk out relating to the injustices of a tool.
Guardians of the Republic: Essays on the Structure, Justice and the Arrangement forward for Indian Democracy
By Ashwani Kumar
Om Books Global
pp. 255; Rs 595/-
