The Tasks Before a Free People

By N. A. PALKHIVALA

Summary

In this Forum of Free Enterprise booklet, N. A. Palkhivala reflects on the 1977 general election that ended the Emergency and brought the Janata-CFD coalition to power, calling it one of the most significant elections in the history of freedom because, at a stroke, it doubled the number of free people on earth. He reads the electorate’s verdict as vindicating the national motto ‘Truth shall prevail’, proving that sacrifice appeals more to the soul of India than success, and showing that the ‘illiterate intelligence’ of the masses achieved what the ‘educated incapacity’ of the intelligentsia could not foresee.

Palkhivala honours those who resisted the Emergency, naming Jayaprakash Narayan as the figure whose moral force had not been matched since Gandhi, and warns — quoting Thackeray — that an electorate that worships its leaders will desert them once the spell breaks. He then turns to the unfinished constitutional task: the worst features of the 42nd Amendment can be undone without a two-thirds parliamentary majority, because under the Kesavananda Bharati basic-structure doctrine the Supreme Court can strike down any amendment that alters or destroys the Constitution’s basic structure, and he enumerates ways in which the 42nd Amendment does exactly that — overthrowing the supremacy of the Constitution, rendering fundamental rights non-justiciable, and disturbing the balance between the organs of state.

The latter sections address the economic and social tasks before the new government. Palkhivala argues that poverty is cruel but curable, that its only cure is ‘economic rationalism instead of economic theology’ and that ‘all isms are lethal’, and that a poor country like India cannot achieve social justice without economic growth. He calls for tapping India’s vast manpower and enterprise, applying an ‘acid test’ of productivity to every policy, reviving neglected irrigation, restoring the rule of law against the revival of bandhs and mob rule, and recognising that liberty and human rights are not an ‘optional extra’ or a luxury for the elite but the birthright of the poor and downtrodden.

Key points

• Frames the 1977 election as historic — ‘at one stroke it doubled the number of free people on earth’.

• Reads the verdict as vindicating ‘Truth shall prevail’ and the moral superiority of sacrifice over success.

• Honours Emergency resisters, naming Jayaprakash Narayan as unmatched in moral force since Gandhi.

• Argues the worst of the 42nd Amendment can be voided by the Supreme Court without a two-thirds majority, via Kesavananda Bharati’s basic-structure doctrine.

• Lists ways the 42nd Amendment destroys the basic structure: Parliament made supreme, fundamental rights made non-justiciable, inter-organ balance disturbed.

• Holds poverty is curable only by ‘economic rationalism instead of economic theology’; ‘all isms are lethal’.

• Insists social justice in a poor country is impossible without economic growth; calls for productivity, enterprise, and revived irrigation.

• Declares liberty and human rights are not an ‘optional extra’ but the birthright of the poor.

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