Vice President's Secretariat
azadi ka amrit mahotsav

Text of the Vice President’s speech during the release of memoir of former TN Governor, Shri PS Ramamohan Rao (Excerpts)

Posted On: 19 MAR 2023 7:35PM by PIB Delhi

India is on rise as never before and the rise is unstoppable. Global relevance and recognition of the Nation is at a level never before. This rise is with challenges from within and without.

It is here that the intelligentsia and people from the media come into picture. We all need to be cognizant of the emergence of incubators and distributors of anti-Indian forces orchestrating pernicious narratives to down size our growth trajectory and taint our functional democracy and constitutional institutions. It is imperative that we all believe in our nation and nationalism and engage in neutralizing such misadventures.

In a democracy, all are similarly accountable to law. No one can have privilege consideration by Law, else Democracy will cease to exist if between A and B, A will be looked at by law through a different prism.

Be you so high, the law is always above you. It is known to us all that there can be no such privileges. There can be no enforcement of these privileges. The rigors of law to apply to all. Some people unfortunately think they are different or to be dealt with differently.

Ours is the most vibrant and functional democracy. Equality is something which we can never negotiate. Adherence to law is not optional. Some people have to realize it. Intelligence and the media have to see a lot of meaning in it.

In democracy, dynamics of governance will always be challenging, requiring harmonious functioning of constitutional institutions, it will always happen. The legislature, the executive and the judiciary - there will always be issues and we shall never have a day when we can say henceforth, there will be no issues, because we are a dynamic society it is bound to happen.

There is no room for confrontation or being a complainant by those who head these institutions. Those who are heading the executive, legislature or judiciary, they cannot be complacent, they cannot act in confrontation. They have to act in collaboration and find resolution together.

I have been thinking for a long time that there is a need for a structured mechanism amongst those at the helm of these institutions - the legislature, the judiciary and the executive. And such structured mechanisms of interaction will go a long way. Those who head these institutions cannot use their platforms for a dialogue with the other institution.

 I have no doubt … I've been saying for a long time … the country's great democracy blossoms and flourishes, it is the primacy of our Constitution that determines the stability, harmony and productivity of democratic governance. And Parliament reflecting the mandate of the people is the ultimate and exclusive architect of the Constitution.

A constitution has to evolve from the people through Parliament. The executive has no role in evolving the Constitution and no other institution including the judiciary has any role to evolve the constitution. Constitution evolution has to take place in Parliament and there can be no super body to look into that. It has to end with Parliament.

Democratic values and public interests are optimally served when the legislature, the judiciary and the executive discharge their respective obligations scrupulously confining to their domain and acting in harmony, togetherness and tandem. This is quintessential, any transgression of this will create a problem for democracy. It is not being possessive about power. It is being possessive about powers given to us by the Constitution. And that is a challenge we all have to collectively face and harmoniously discharge.

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MS/RK/RC 


(Release ID: 1908573)
Read this release in: Urdu , Hindi , Kannada