Reported By:
| Edited By: |Source: DNA |Updated: Nov 19, 2013, 11:17 PM IST
The President of India’s oath of office is different from those of other constitutional appointments. President Pratibha Patil’s oath does not mention maintaining secrecy of government functions, unlike the oaths taken by ministers or justices.
Instead, the President swore that she would “devote myself to the service and well-being of the people of India” besides preserving, protecting and defending the Constitution of India. This solemn affirmation puts the President, otherwise considered a “rubber stamp” head of the state, at a higher pedestal, for she alone is under an oath to protect the constitutional rights of the people such as the right to life with dignity.
Yet, the Indian president doesn’t play a proactive role in restoring the citizen’s faith in the Constitution. A high-powered committee headed by retired Chief Justice of India M N Venkatachaliah to examine “whether the Constitution has failed us or have we failed it’’, screened every aspect of constitutional rights. It is yet to attract the government’s attention.
Former Attorney General Soli J Sorabjee was among the panel members who wanted the Indian police and other enforcement agencies humanised. President Patil was in Dehradun, on her way to a pilgrimage to the Badrinath temple, when the trigger-happy cops of Uttarakhand broke the bones of a MBA graduate before riddling his body with a dozen bullets.
There is no dearth of Ranbir Singhs in India. Because of a diabolic nexus between the political executive and the police, state governments fight shy of speaking out the truth about the ghastly bloodshed by their cops. But nothing prevents the President from taking suo motu action by calling for a report of such violations of human rights which are necessarily ingrained in the Right to Life (Article 21).
The Asian Centre for Human Rights, in its report Torture in India 2008: A State of Denial, claims that 7,468 persons died or were killed in prison and police custody during 2002-2007. This works out to four deaths a day.
