The writer is professor of law, University of Warwick,and former vice chancellor of Universities of South Gujarat and Delhi.
Constitution contains a kindred concept of justice, asks a citizen to be responsive to sufferings of co-citizens
It is unnecessary to cite many more features but perhaps it is sufficient to say that ours is not entirely a “liberal” constitutionalism and one needs to appreciate the context of the poignant realities of Indian Partition in which this miraculous document was conceived by far-sighted composite figures.
The triumphal moment of Modi 2.0 has led to sincere felicitations by all citizens, but the insidious phrase “left liberals” has resurfaced and pleas have been already aired for a “re-invention of liberalism”. What matters for political and civic discourse is not name-calling but rather the tolerance of the intolerable — disrespect for dissent, encouragement for practices of ethnic violence, caste or community-based lynching, and production of social indifference towards states of injustice and human rightlessness. It does not matter for those murdered, and the survivors, whether all this is produced or reproduced by left, right, or centre; all that they insist on is strict scrutiny now and prevention of re-occurrence, regardless of the political labels we choose to affix on the opponents. All political cadres and leaders must encourage and practice the vital difference on which a democratic order is premised — the difference between the “adversary” and “enemy”.
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