"Take but good note, and you shall see in him the triple pillar of the world transformed into a strumpet's fool" says Philo to Demetrius in the opening scene of Shakespeare's 'Antony and Cleopatra', referring to Mark Antony's infatuation with Cleopatra. The Legislature, the Executive and the Judiciary are the triple pillars of a democracy. The strumpet here, is not a woman of alluring beauty like Cleopatra. The strumpet here is the more enchanting essence of power, and the contest of power is born of the greed to usurp other's domain and dominate in excess.
It is a known fact that children's upbringing up to a certain age, mostly vests with the parents. But after that, the children have to be made independent so as to fend for themselves. Parents can intervene and mediate wherever they are called for. But they cannot stay as stumbling blocks or enforcement agencies. We have also seen cases of right-thinking parents being loaded with wrongdoing children and crooked parents being blessed with well-meaning children.
This is how sometimes good, elected governments are cornered by bad executive agencies or good executive agencies are slighted by bad governments. If these two pillars frequency indulge in a tug of war, the third pillar called the Judiciary which has the power to intervene between parents and children can also intervene between an elected government and an engineered executive machinery.
Power games are not new to India. In the abuse of Article 356, the powers went crazy during the last century, until the apex judiciary firmly tamed the bull to a great extent. Here, no doubt the Union Government is in a parental position; but it is not expected to take a tough posture, in dealing with the vital regional issues of states that stand as independently grown children, capable of fending for themselves. If states as good children fail to get a fair deal from their parents called the Union government, the next alternative open to them is to knock at the doors of the third pillar.
Whether the third pillar offers a fair deal in all issues, depends on the fairness in application of mind of the judiciary. That is why we have a three-tier level of justice system with the second and third tiers, eligible for the constitution of benches so as to make everybody feel that justice delivered is justice earned and not yearned for. However, every verdict is always a matter of contention for the losing pillar involved in a case.
The new millennium norms with regard to distribution of powers, have taken ugly dimensions on account of the never seen intense ideological war between the power centres. The zest for equitable power distribution, to facilitate fairness towards attaining legitimate goals of education, cultural identity and economic empowerment of the underprivileged, turns topsy turvy, when the intermediate nominated executive machinery unfairly blocks all moves,with its ulterior agenda stuck to its own ideological pole, absolutely unsuitable to regional aspirations. It is almost similar to parents preventing children's growth, just because the aspirations of the children are not acceptable to parental perceptions.
The power pillars need more than an opportunistic, transitory settlement of issues, as truce. The two need a permanent and balanced devolution of powers so as to enable the elected state to avail of adequate financial resources, to frame laws towards fulfilling regional growth in education, health and infrastructure, besides letting them breathe afresh,with their linguistic and cultural moorings.
Let the ideologies halt their aggressive incursions and let the country be ruled for the people and not for ideological shifts in the name of religion, language, and caste. It is only then, the pillars of elected legislature and the nominated executive will have no need to waste time in blocking bills and knocking at the doors of the Judiciary. Moreover, instead of being on a testy conflicting base at all times, let these two pillars give the Judiciary its much-needed time to deal with tons of cases relating to the citizens of the country, for a fair disposal.
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