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President, PM disagree on Constitution review

President K R Narayanan and Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee have expressed divergent views on the move to review the Constitution.

''When there is so much talk about reviewing the Constitution, or even writing a new Constitution, we have to consider whether it is the Constitution that has failed us or whether it is we who have failed the Constitution,'' the President said at a function in the Central Hall of Parliament.

Quoting Dr Rajendra Prasad, the president of the Constituent Assembly, Narayanan said, ''The people who are elected are capable men of character and integrity. They should be able to make the best of a defective Constitution. If they are lacking in these, the Constitution cannot help the country.''

''I believe these are wise words with which should pay heed to,'' he added.

Justifying the move for a constitutional review, Vajpayee said, ''The people are impatient for faster socio-economic development. The country is also faced with the pressing challenge to quickly remove regional and social imbalances by reorienting the development process to benefit the poorest and the weakest.''

He said that was the purpose for which the commission to review the Constitution was to be set up. ''The basic structure and core ideals would remain inviolate,'' he added.

''Our Constitution has served the needs of both India's diversity and her innate unity," Vajpayee went on. "It has strengthened India's democratic institutions.''

''Even in the mightiest fort one has to repair the parapet from time to time, one has to clean the moat and check the banisters. The same is true about our Constitution,'' he said. ''Five decades after the adoption of the Constitution, India is faced with a new situation. The need for stability, both at the Centre and in the states, has been felt acutely.''

Vice-President Krishan Kant, for his part, referred to the various landmarks in India's fight against British rule. Quoting from a poem by Nazir Banarasi calling Mahatma Gandhi 'The old gardener', Kant said, "Let us take the pledge today that we will never allow this garland of flowers, strung together by Gandhiji, to be broken."

Earlier, Lok Sabha Speaker G M C Balayogi had said the nation could not afford to be complacent. It had to face serious challenges to achieve the kind of socio-economic progress that the founding fathers of the Constitution had envisioned.

He said there was need to promote a way of life which recognised liberty, equality and fraternity as the principles of life, and brought about emotional integration of the diverse people of the country. "Striving towards the realisation of the lofty vision of our founding fathers is our collective responsibility," the vice-president added.

In the function that lasted just over an hour, Vajpayee and Narayanan released a special commemorative plaque, an album of the national song Jana gana mana , and a calligraphy of the Constitution in Hindi by Vasant Krishan Vaidya.

UNI

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