Constitutional Design

NCERT Exercise Solution

Part 2

Question 7: A friend from Nepal has written you a letter describing the political exercises situation there. Many political parties are opposing the rule of the king. Some of them say that the existing constitution given by the monarch can be amended to allow more powers to elected representatives. Others are demanding a new Constituent Assembly to write a republican constitution. Reply to your friend giving your opinions on the subject.

Answer: Both the options are plausible. If the existing constitution is proper then it can be amended to include more powers to elected representatives. If the existing constitution is full of loopholes, then a new constitution should be drafted. For this, a Constituent Assembly should be formed by including the elected representatives and they should collectively decide about a particular option.

Question 8: Here are different opinions about what made India a democracy. How much importance would you give to each of these factors?

Democracy in India is a gift of the British rulers. We received training to work with representative legislative institutions under the British rule.

Answer: The importance of this fact cannot be ignored. We should acknowledge that we learnt many good things from the British rulers and democracy was one of them.
Freedom Struggle challenged the colonial exploitation and denial of different freedoms to Indians. Free India could not be anything but democratic.

Answer: Freedom struggle was important in spreading the idea of nationalism in India and inculcating the practice of making decisions by consensus.
We were lucky to have leaders who had democratic convictions. The denial of democracy in several other newly independent countries shows the important role of these leaders.

Answer: We were indeed lucky that we did not have leaders who were autocratic. India’s freedom struggle is the only example of a bloodless freedom struggle in the contemporary history. This could be possible because our nationalist leaders had the maturity to listen to others’ views.

Question 9: Read the following extract from a conduct book for ‘married women’, published in 1912. ‘God has made the female species delicate and fragile both physically and emotionally, pitiably incapable of self-defence. They are destined thus by God to remain in male protection – of father, husband and son – all their lives. Women should, therefore, not despair, but feel obliged that they can dedicate themselves to the service of men’. Do you think the values expressed in this para reflected the values underlying our constitution? Or does this go against the constitutional values?

Answer: The constitution treats every citizen equally irrespective of gender distinction. Hence this paragraph does not reflect the underlying value in our constitution.

Question 10: Read the following statements about a constitution. Give reasons why each of these is true or not true.

(a) The authority of the rules of the constitution is the same as that of any other law.

Answer: If a new law passed by the Parliament is gound to be deviating from the basic principles of Constitution, that law will eventually be quashed. This shows that a Constitution is above other laws.

(b) Constitution lays down how different organs of the government will be formed.

Answer: Agree

(d) A constitution is about institutions, not about values.

Answer: (d) A constitution is about institutions through which different values are being inculcated.