Reading the Consti­tu­tion, or at least its Preamble, seems fashiona­ble suddenly. Whatever be its context or rationale, including the anti- CAA protests in the country, there is little to dispute that swearing by the letter and spirit of the masterly tome could not have been more appropriate than today, as we mark the 70th anniversary of its coming into effect on January 26, 1950, to lay the edifice of our proud Republic.

But as we celebrate the milestone, the occasion also calls for introspection. We The People have the power to vote in/out our rulers, no matter the imp­erfections that have crept into our democ­r­atic system. And notwithstanding how unj­ust, hierarchical or discriminatory our system could be, we remain equals in the eyes of law, at least theoretically, with a rig­htful share to legal rec­ourse and remedies.

But, thereafter, things start to go wrong and our real-life experiences are often at complete variance with what our Constitution’s founding fathers envisaged. Inequalities abound and injustices...