In a letter addressed to Indian citizens to mark Constitution Day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday (November 26) once again laid emphasis on the “primacy of duties” of a citizen, interlinked rights and duties and invoked Mahatma Gandhi to justify his priority on duties to say that a “duty well performed creates a corresponding right and that real rights are a result of the performance of duty.”
Modi’s letter to Indian citizens reminding them to fulfil duties for the creation of a Viksit Bharat came only a day after the prime minister as the head of the sovereign secular republic of India, hoisted a saffron flag atop the Ram Temple in Ayodhya and claimed “wounds of centuries are healing” as he marked the completion of the temple’s construction, without any mention of the loss of lives in the communal violence following the Babri Mosque’s destruction.
While this is not the first time that Modi has laid emphasis on citizens duties, or interlinked them with rights to suggest that duties correspond to rights, the constitution shows that such interlinking is incorrect. According to constitutional experts and political scientists, an invocation of duties, placing primacy on them above rights, is a subtle attempt to recast the constitution, ensure compliance in a manner seen in authoritarian regimes, and signals a danger to democratic principles.
In his letter Modi referred to the 150th birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Birsa Munda, 150th anniversary of Vande Mataram, 350th martyrdom anniversary of Sri Guru Teg Bahadur and said that these personalities and milestones “remind us of the primacy of our duties” which he underlined has been emphasised in the constitution “through a dedicated chapter on Fundamental Duties in Article 51A.”
“These duties guide us on how to collectively achieve social and economic progress,” he said.
He then went on to invoke Gandhi to suggest that “real rights are a result of the performance of duty.”
“Mahatma Gandhi always emphasised the duties of a citizen. He believed that a duty well performed creates a corresponding right and that real rights are a result of the performance of duty,” wrote Modi in the letter.
Modi said that as the nation moves towards the goal of Viksit Bharat by 2047, to mark 100 years of independence, “duties towards the nation” must be “foremost” as it is the responsibility of citizens to fulfil the dreams envisioned by the framers of the constitution.
“When we work with this sense of duty, our nation’s social and economic progress will multiply manifold,” he said.
“Let us, on this Constitution Day, reaffirm our pledge to fulfil our duties as citizens of this great nation. In doing so, we can all contribute meaningfully to the building of a Viksit Bharat that is developed and empowered.”
While Modi in his letter has laid emphasis on the Fundamental Duties contained in “dedicated chapter” in Article 51A, this was not a part of the original constitution.
“The idea of duties is typical of socialist constitutions and not liberal constitutions. Liberal constitutions on principle have chapters on rights and the framers of the Indian constitution were drafting a liberal constitution and therefore duties were not there. In India now we have a unique situation where a rightist government is becoming more socialist,” said a constitutional law expert who did not want to be named.
Fundamental Duties were inserted into the constitution only in 1976, during the Emergency imposed by the then-Indira Gandhi government through the 42nd Amendment which brought in duties along with other sweeping changes to the constitution. While the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) have in recent years called for removing “secular” and socialist” from the constitution, both of which were also added to the preamble through the 42nd Amendment, it has not taken exception to duties. The Janata Party government which was formed after the Emergency, too retained “secular” and “socialist” despite removing almost everything in the 42nd Amendment.
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“Indira Gandhi at the peak of her power during the emergency could not insert Fundamental Duties in Part III or Fundamental Rights. She could at best insert it in a chapter through Part IVA,” the constitutional expert said.
According to Part IVA of the constitution, Fundamental Duties require citizens to abide by the constitution, respect its ideals and institutions, uphold and protect the sovereignty, unity and integrity of India, promote harmony amongst all people transcending religious, linguistic and regional or sectional diversities; renounce practices derogatory to the dignity of women; among other duties.
“Subsequently the Supreme Court in a number of cases started saying that Fundamental Rights and directive principles both are to be harmoniously interpreted. A number of directive principles were read as part of right to life and personal liberty under Article 21 like right to education, right to health, etc. So constitutionally speaking, rights are more important, duties are less important. There is no question of the primacy of a duty,” the constitutional expert said.
Modi’s emphasis on duties over rights, however, is not new. On Constitution Day in 2019, Modi in his address to the parliament said “rights and responsibilities go hand-in-hand” and invoked Gandhi.
In 2020, while addressing the third edition of Pariksha Pe Charcha, Modi told students “rights are embedded in duties”.
In January 2022, he even went on to say that in 75 years “we only kept talking about rights, fighting for rights and wasting our time” while in his Independence Day address the same year, he once again laid emphasis on “duties” as one among the five pran (vow) of citizens.
Constitutional experts on the other hand said that rights and duties are not even correlative, with Fundamental Rights overriding Fundamental Duties. Most importantly, while Fundamental Rights are enforceable, duties are not.
“So far as the relative importance of Fundamental Rights and Fundamental Duties is concerned the Fundamental Rights have primacy,” said constitutional expert and former Lok Sabha secretary general P.D.T Achary.
“The Fundamental Rights are enforceable rights. If there is a violation of any Fundamental Rights you can go to court for redressal. And even going to the court itself is a Fundamental Right under Article 32. But that cannot be said about Fundamental Duties. There is no such provision in the constitution. So it’s not correct to place rights and duties on the same footing.”
While Modi has invoked Gandhi in his speeches to justify the priority that he places on duties, political scientists said that Gandhi’s ideas of duties were never a substitute for rights.
“Gandhi often spoke of duties, but he never treated them as a substitute for rights; duties did not supersede rights. For him, duties were a moral path for individuals, while Fundamental Rights remained essential and must be protected by the state. Gandhi’s commitment to duties did not diminish rights in any way,” said Zoya Hasan, professor emerita, Centre for Political Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University.
The attempt to invoke Gandhi to shape the duties discourse also overlooks Gandhi’s basic principle of Swaraj, the right to self determination.
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“Gandhi’s idea of satyagraha was his right to seek the truthful path to freedom as a right. The concept of Swaraj is also the right to self determination. No doubt Gandhi’s constructive programme of 17 items included duties, and in a community’s self governance everybody must respect each other’s rights. So in that way rights and duties are important, and in a specific context they do interact but rights are not conditional upon performing a duty,” said Manoranjan Mohanty, political scientist and distinguished professor at the Council for Social Development, New Delhi.
Modi’s efforts in recent years to focus on duties over rights then raises questions on his intentions to do so, and whether it signals an attempt to divert attention from the rights discourse and presents a danger to Indian democracy.
“The intention is very clear to seek compliance to all the decisions that he, his party, his regime, is taking,” said Mohanty.
He underlined that people should perform their duty by obeying all the decisions which, according to him, “are the democratically elected government’s decisions”. “They should be implemented to achieve what he calls developed India or to build Viksit Bharat. Therefore, as a critic, I would say emphasising on duties is seeking conformity, by not opening government decisions to debate on further improvement of policies or its implications for various sections of people.”
“Further, the emphasis on duties in exclusion of the emphasis on rights signals a danger to our democracy because it implies you have no respect for people’s rights as the most Fundamental Right was independence and from there flows our Fundamental Rights which must be actualised through policies. This is another sign of growing authoritarianism where rulers use the duty approach to concentrate power and seek compliance,” he added.
The irony of Modi’s attempts to incorrectly highlight duties emphasised in the constitution is even more apparent when his letter reached citizens just a day after he hoisted a saffron flag atop a temple, even as mosques are being increasingly asked to hoist the national flag.
“The prime minister is writing to citizens on Constitution Day, emphasising the importance of the Constitution, even as just the day before, he presided over religious ceremonies which installed the saffron flag atop the Ayodhya temple; this act contradicts the secular spirit of the Constitution,” said Hasan.
She added: “The persistent focus on duties, especially from the prime minister, misrepresents the constitution, weakens the centrality of rights, and risks cultivating a more passive citizenry. It erodes the rights-centred character of the Constitution. When a leader highlights duties while ignoring rights, especially on Constitution Day, it subtly recasts the Constitution as something it is not.”
Republished with permission from TheWire. The original article can be read here.