ISSN (Print) - 0012-9976 | ISSN (Online) - 2349-8846

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Road to Secularism

Gandhian version of Hinduism at that. There is no question that Hinduism is the dominant religious culture in India and that it has something to say to the rest of the world but precisely because of this, its relationship to other cultures like dalit, tribal, Sikh, Muslim, etc, needs to be very critically reflected. Gandhism may not be the ultimate answer in dealing with these traditions.

MAHARASHTRA-Development Boards and the Governor

merely a hasty reading out of the papers already mimeographed and circulated, without so much as an attempt at any deliberation. However, considering the dismal standard of most of the papers, absence of any deliberation should only be seen as a blessing in disguise.

Constitutional Proposals for a Consensus Government

Constitutional Proposals for a Consensus Government S V Kogekar MOST observers and many party leaders have stated that no single party is in a position to secure an absolute majority of seats in the Lok Sabha in the mid-term poll. This implies the establishment of a coalition government at the Centre. But the experience of coalition governments in the states (with the exception of Kerala and West Bengal) and the recent attempt in that direction at the Centre do not inspire confidence in their continued viability over a period of five years. In the first place, such coalitions have taken place purely as a device for sharing in power without any agreement on a programme of action. Secondly, personal ambitions have tended to encourage defections and manipulations among' the partners in these coalitions, leading to a state of instability in the government. No firm policies can be pursued in such a situation, the sole aim of the ministers being to stay in power and of ohers to replace them at any cost. Coalition governments become not only weak governments in many cases even nongovernments, putting off vital decisions or taking them only on paper without the least effort to implement them.

Partisan Governors

Be that as it may,' the author also assumes that if Whitley system could be a "success in the UK and other countries with Parliamentary Democratic Institutions, centralisation of admi- nis;rative authority and multiple unionism among public employees'' (p 237), then this cou'd also be successfully adopted in India because India shares these characteristics. However, he soon realises that in spite of this apparent similarity, the two situations differ fundamentally in terms of conditions that affect the functioning of these joint consultative machineries. Thus unlike Britain, neither the government nor the employees in India have genuine faith in the participative management and industrial democracy. The employees are also poorly organised and further, the employee movement is internally fragmented due to political and other reasons. The government has also not followed any clear and uniform policy regarding union recognition. Similarly, it has failed to develop suitable principles for the purposes of pay determination and so on. In fact, the author realises at the end that the present socio-economic and political system of the country is not congenial to the development of harmonious civil service staff relations and that "there is need for radical changes in fiscal policies, the administrative structure, the reorientation of the personnel managers and effective co-operation and participation of the employees in admini- siration" (p 249).

Are Governors Agents of the Centre

Are Governors Agents of the Centre?
S V Kogekar Role of Governors in the Emerging Pattern of Centre-State Relations in India by Ashoke K Sen; Institute of Constitutional and Parliamentary Studies, National Publishing House, Delhi, 1975; pp viii + 75;

Elections under Emergency

Elections under Emergency S V Kogekar WELCOME as the decision to hold elections to the Lok Sabha is, the democratic process which finds its most visible expression in a general election is under considerable constraint on account of the continuance of the emergency. The fundamental rights to civil liberties are still under suspension and the doors of the courts to secure their enforcement remain closed. Press censorship has been relaxed and election meetings can be held without special permission from the guardians of law and order and to that extent the rigour of the emergency has, no doubt, been reduced. But the government is still armed with all the extraordinary powers secured since the declaration of emergency and it is entirely a matter of its discretion, whether and to what extent to use those powers. The recent statement from on high that the current rise in prices is due to increased indiscipline consequent on the relaxation of emergency restrictions

Constitution Amendment Bill

Constitution Amendment Bill S V Kogekar In putting the recommendations the Swaran Singh Committee in appropriate legal language is the constitution Amendment Bill, several changes have been made in the substance of those recom- endations Not only that, several new clauses which did not figure in the Committee's proposals have been introduced in the Amendment Bill for which no justification of any kind has been given.

Revision of the Constitution

Revision of the Constitution S V Kogekar The main issue which has dominated the proposals of the Swaran Singh Committee on revision of the Constitution has been that of the relative positions of the judiciary and the legislature in our constitutional set-up. If these proposals are finally incorporated in the Constitution, we shall have a far more powerful Parliament which, in a parliamentary system such as ours, inevitably means a far more powerful executive at the Centre, than what we have so far had in normal times.

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