Much maligned and lampooned Congress dynast Rahul Gandhi visited London in March 2023 to spew venom against the nation he has been craving to rule continuing the legacy of dynasticism. Not only he exhorted Brit-Goras to come back to India to re-root democracy but also declared the nation as ‘Union Of States’ implying thereby, nothing existed or mattered before Aug. 15, 1947 on the lines of perverted and distorted history taught to children in Pakistani schools. His statements invited an avalanche of hostile and angry comments from all over the nation, disrupted Parliamentary proceedings as he declined to apologise for his offensive and seditious remarks on the soil of former colonial masters. The paradigm of ‘Union Of States’ raised by him requires to be re-visited exhaustively.
Till 1947, Bharatavarsha had been a nation in true sense of the term for thousands of years. Hundreds of small and medium sized Kingdoms dotted the sub-continent often at war among themselves for various reasons with shifting territorial boundaries. On three historic occasions, these boundaries moved around in such a manner that three largest Kingdoms viz. Maurya, Gupta and Maratha came into being covering almost entire nation. Nation had witnessed unprecedented prosperity during their rule and the sense of nationhood was enormously strengthened. Post Partition-1947 after British occupiers were thrown out of the nation, all remaining Kingdoms were united into one political entity, a Constitution was framed for the purpose of smooth governance in all aspects. Existence of ancient nationhood of Bharata was never denied by framers of the Constitution as the innermost solidified and sacrosanct core and ‘Union Of States’ was an added feature as its jacket externally. It explicitly conveyed ancient nation of Bharatavarsha is now re-organised as ‘Union Of India’ with States having no privilege to secede under any circumstance.
Article (1) of the Constitution was debated on Nov. 15 and 17 of 1948 as well as on Sept. 17 and 18 of 1949. As some members of the Constituent Assembly demanded the nation be declared a ‘Federation Of States’ instead of ‘Union Of States’, it was explained by Dr. Ambedkar that ‘Union Of States’ implied, States had absolutely no right to secede from the nation. As some members like Seth Govinda Das, Ram Sahai and Kamalapati Tripathi wanted the name ‘Bharata’ only to be retained in the Constitution as it could be traced back to ancient texts like Veda-s, Upanisad-s and Mahabharata while others ‘India’, an amendment was duly adopted to retain both. Hence the final proclamation as ‘India, that is Bharat, shall be a Union of States’ was adopted. Anticipating questions from his fellow members, Ambedkar told the Assembly that ‘the use of the word Union is deliberate’. He and his Draft Committee colleagues wanted to signal that even though India was a ‘federation’ this was ‘not the result of an agreement by States to join the federation…’. Therefore, States did not have the right to secede. He added that the Indian ‘Federation is a Union because it is indestructible’. It appears, the Drafting Committee feared that declaring India as a ‘federation’ would allow space for States to secede.
Now reverting to the original issue of a Congress dynast declaring Bharata an ‘India that is Union Of States’ smacks of his malafide intentions hidden behind his pernicious antipathy towards RSS, BJP, brilliant performance of Prime Minister Modi and bleak prospects of his Party coming back to power anytime even in distant future. So was his mother Antonia Maino when she assured electorate of Karnataka to protect and preserve ‘sovereignty’ of the State while campaigning for Assembly elections in May 2023. They are desperate to stage a comeback to power influenced by the sense of entitlement tormenting his family and in this desperation, they are eager to go to any extent including treacherous anti-nationalism too.
Bharata has always been a well-knit Sanatana nation strongly united by Sanatana values while conducting her governance in the outfit of ‘Union Of States’, an additional feature to the ancient Bharatiya nationhood.
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