Polity GS Paper II by R.P.Singh

Model Answer

Question #1. The 74th Amendment is crucial to the strengthening of key public delivery channels, but unfortunately has not been accorded with the importance it deserves. Analyse.

Approach:

• Introduce by defining the 74th Amendment act and related inserted Article in the constitution (25 words)
• Mention why 74th amendment act as key public delivery channel (60 words)
• Highlight the drawbacks of 74th amendment (40 words)
• In conclusion write the way forward (25 words)

Hints:

The 74th Amendment Act not only formally constituted a three-tiered municipal structure for Indian cities, but also provided an illustrative list of their specific functions through the 12th schedule.

Among their varied core functions, municipalities were entrusted with the responsibility for urban town planning, regulation of land use and construction, planning for social and economic development, construction of roads and bridges, and water supply.

Municipalities as key public delivery channels

• They were also responsible for ensuring public health, sanitation and solid waste management, efficient fire services, environment protection, safeguarding the interests of weaker sections of society, slum improvement and up-gradation and urban poverty alleviation.
• These functions, as is apparent, would have a very direct bearing on the way Indian cities developed, and the quality of life that the burgeoning urban population, projected to grow at a rate of 2.4 per cent each year until 2030, experienced.
• Provision of state-run home services and basic unmet needs as regards health, education, environmental cleanliness, drinking water in homes, recreation and sport.
• Organization and planning of the economic, social and environmental development of their territory and construction of facilities required for municipal progress.
• Control of the appropriate management of renewable natural resources and the environment.
• Promotion of community participation and the social and cultural improvement of their inhabitants

Drawbacks

• While the functions of the municipalities were clearly outlined, the Amendment Act did not draw out a parallel list of financial powers that would allow the municipalities to actually carry these out.
• The crucial question of how they would raise funds for fulfilling their functions was, instead, left to the discretion of individual state governments therefore can be dissolved by them as well if not dancing as per their tunes.
• The result is a highly uneven and non-uniform level of reform implementation by individual state governments, leaving most of India's municipalities in a poor condition, even 21 years after the 74th Amendment's enactment.
• As much as 75 per cent of India's urban citizens shall constitute an economically weak 'bottom income segment' in 2030, it is apparent that pressures on service delivery systems that provide basic services such as sanitation, water, electricity, transportation, healthcare, education and much else will hit the urban Indian poor the hardest, as they have a weaker capacity to access private alternate means of service provision.
• Municipalities in India today operate in highly disparate ways, making it difficult to understand and assess their functioning. Evidence, however, indicates that empowered municipalities have, in general, been able to take bold decisions and initiate systemic solutions to problems that have had a direct bearing on the lives of the urban poor.
• With an annual addition of over 10 million people to its urban population each year, India confronts an increasingly formidable urban service delivery challenge.
• Lack of proper monitoring system in place results in inefficient and improper functioning of Local Urban Bodies.

Conclusion:

The 74th Amendment is crucial to the strengthening of the main public delivery channels, and unfortunately has not been accorded with the importance it deserves. A failure to take note of this in the times to come shall only have adverse consequences for India's growth and development trajectory, and it is inevitable that the urban poor, drivers of India's urban economy, shall carry the burden.

Question #2. The DPSPs are an unofficial manifesto for good governance, if a political party can only adhere to them properly, when in power, there is no need for any other manifesto. In this context examine the importance and limitations of DPSPs.

Approach: 

• Introduction about DPSP.(40 Words)
• Explain why they are considered as unofficial manifesto. (70 Words)
• Discuss about limitations of DPSPs (100 Words)
• Conclude with positive views. (40 Words)

Hints:

DPSP enshrined in Part-IV (A 36 to 51) of the constitution are borrowed from the Ireland constitution. It guarantees social and economic democracy and tries to establish a welfare state. The Directive Principles are non-justiciable in nature, the Constitution under Article 37 makes it clear that these principles are fundamental in the governance of the country and it shall be the duty of the state to apply these principles in making laws. They impose an ethical responsibility on the state authorities for their application, but the real force behind them is political, that is, public opinion.

How DPSP serve as governance manifesto:

They serve as a crucial test for the performance of the government. The people can examine the policies and programmes of the government in the light of these constitutional declarations.

• Their implementation makes a favorable atmosphere for the full and proper enjoyment of the fundamental rights by the citizens. Political democracy, without economic democracy, has no meaning.
• They are supplementary to the fundamental rights of the citizens. They are intended to fill in the vacuum in Part III by providing for social and economic rights.
• They enable the opposition to exercise influence and control over the operations of the government. The Opposition can blame the ruling party on the ground that its activities are opposed to the Directives.

Criticism of the Directive Principles:

Many constitutional and political experts as well as members of the constituent assembly criticized the Directive Principles on the following grounds:

 No Legal Force

• The criticism of the Directive principles was mainly the consequence of their non-justiciable nature. While K T Shah dubbed them as ‘pious superfluities’ and compared them with ‘a cheque on a bank, payable only when the resources of the bank permit’, Nasiruddin contended that these principles are ‘no better than the new year’s resolutions, which are broken on the second of January’.
• T.T. Krishnamachari described the Directives as a veritable dust-bin of sentiments, while K C Wheare called them as a manifesto of aims and aspirations and suggested that they serve simply as moral homily, and Sir Ivor Jennings observed them only as pious aspirations.

Illogically Arranged

• According to the critics, the Directive Principles are not arranged in a sensible manner on the basis of a consistent philosophy. The declaration blends the relatively insignificant issues with the most important economic and social questions.
• It combines rather inappropriately the modern with the old and provisions suggested by reason and science with provisions based purely on sentiment and prejudice.

Conservative

• Sir Ivor Jennings observed the Directives to be the basis of the political philosophy of 19th century England. He remarked: ‘The ghosts of Sydney Webb and Beatrice Webb stalk through the pages of the text. Part IV of the Constitution expresses Fabian Socialism without the socialism’. He suggested that the Directives are deemed to be suitable in India in the middle of the twentieth century.

 Constitutional Conflict

 K Santhanam has stated that the Directive principles arise a constitutional conflict between

• The Centre and the states,
• The President and the Prime Minister, and
• The governor and the chief minister.

According to him, the Centre can give directions to the states with respect to the implementation of these principles, and in case of non-compliance, can dismiss the state government.

Conclusion:

Despite many shortcomings, DPSPs still remain fundamental to the governance of the system. Governments should systematically convert DPSPs into Fundamental rights as was done in case of Right to Education (Article 21A) to improve their effect. Elaborate provisions of DPSPs about women's rights, children rights and worker’s rights makes them essential for the government as a guiding tool to work for the welfare of society.