A separate Constitution for NE, why the fuss ?
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: June 09 2012 -
Responding to the call of NESO, many students and volunteers turned up in Guwahati to demand repeal of AFSPA, discrimination, harassment, torture on NE students in other parts of India :: Pix - Hueiyen Lanpao
Ningombam Pramod from the desk
Constitution is the supreme law of the land to which all laws are subordinate. The constitution of a country is a kind of social contract, which binds people, society and state. The whole of India is bind by a single Constitution except for Jammu and Kashmir, which has a separate Constitution of its own.
Article 370 of the Indian Constitution, which is of a temporary nature, grants special status to Jammu and Kashmir. Even though included in 1st Schedule as 15th state, all the provisions of the Constitution which are applicable to other states are not applicable to Jammu & Kashmir.
For example, till 1965, J&K had a Sadr-e-Riyasat for Governor and Prime Minister in place of Chief Minister. As such, till today, Jammu & Kashmir still remains as the only state in India which has a Constitution of its own. The Constitution of Jammu & Kashmir was enacted by a separate Constituent Assembly set up by the State and it came into force on 26 January, 1957.
Though Jammu and Kashmir has been given a separate Constitution does not necessarily meant that any state of India can demand a separate Constitution of its own and at the same time there is no hard and fast rule which prohibits any state from demanding a Constitution of its own.
It is because of the certain circumstances which come up, that a separate Constitution is granted to a particular state and separate ones are being demanded.
Recently, North East Students Organisation (NESO) has raised the demand for separate Constitutional Status for all the states of the North East. Whether the demand made by NESO is legitimate or not is not the question to be raised and discussed here.
But what is needed to understand is why the student community of the region has demanded a separate Constitution for the North East States. The reasons may be varied and the demand could be sensible.
One good reason why the North East students have demanded for a separate Constitution is the attitude of mainland India towards the North Easterners.
The reasons could have been aggravated with the recent cases of killings, rape and torture meted out to the North East people by certain sections of mainland India. Over and above, the NESO has rightly pointed out that the North East region has suffered political injustice since 1947 at the hands of mainland India.
The demand for rights of the North East people over their own land and resource is also quite reasonable considering the huge natural resources available in the region.
Moreover, a system where there is only one monolith constitution does not reflect the separate and independent status of the states.
So, apart from suggesting certain amendments in the Constitution, it is also quite reasonable to bring out issues and suggest separate Constitutions for states since such measures could provide for completeness as an integral Constitutional political unit of the state with powers enshrined in their separated Constitutions.
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