Poverty Is A great Insult To The Very Foundation Of Our Constitution: AG KK Venugopal [Read Full Text Of His I Day Speech]

Attorney General Of India KK Venugopal on Tuesday said poverty is a great insult to the very foundation of our Constitution. He was speaking at an Independence Day function organised by the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA).

“We have the three wings of government, all of them having vast powers in their allocated fields.  There are dividing lines but these have been dimmed over the period of years.  The three wings of State have had as its agenda that poverty has to be abolished and eradicated from the face of India.  The agenda on this aspect has been common to that of the Judiciary, Executive and Parliament but there is something lacking in the ethos of the people which seem to stand in the way of the achievement of these desired goals.  Perhaps, the well-to-do population among us who are to implement welfare schemes are heartless and venal and don’t hesitate to divert the funds and benefits for their own private gain.  It now appears that unless you eradicate corruption, poverty also may not be eradicated.  But this is a problem endemic not only to India but to all our neighbours as well”, He said.

Here is the Full Text of AG Venugopal’s speech

We have completed 70 years of independence  and therefore it is time to take stock as to what we have achieved during this very long period of seven decades.  It is now a time for introspection.

We have been given in 1950 a very powerful Constitution and its outstanding characteristics is its egalitarian concepts woven into its Preamble and its chapter on Fundamental Rights. Among its vibrant provisions are Article 21 of the Constitution which protects life and personal liberty and above all the equality provision contained in Article 14 followed by Articles 15 and 16 and these together sum up the profound philosophy of the Constitution. The  Preamble declares justice, (social, economic, political), liberty and equality of status and opportunity among all and fraternity  assuring the dignity of the individual and integrity of the nation.  We find Articles which provide for the abolition of untouchability and prohibiting enforcement of any disability arising out of untouchability shall be an offence punishable in accordance with the law. Beggar or any kind of slavery is abolished.  This raises the question as to how far have we as a people been able to secure these lofty ideals of our founding fathers.  We find that a vast percentage of the population of this country is living in utter-penury and this goes into hundreds of millions.  The State has been unable to provide for universal education in the period of 70 years.  The health services of the poor appears to be in shambles.  Employment is still to achieve its goals.

We have the three wings of government, all of them having vast powers in their allocated fields.  There are dividing lines but these have been dimmed over the period of years.  The three wings of State have had as its agenda that poverty has to be abolished and eradicated from the face of India.  The agenda on this aspect has been common to that of the Judiciary, Executive and Parliament but there is something lacking in the ethos of the people which seem to stand in the way of the achievement of these desired goals.  Perhaps, the well-to-do population among us who are to implement welfare schemes are heartless and venal and don’t hesitate to divert the funds and benefits for their own private gain.  It now appears that unless you eradicate corruption, poverty also may not be eradicated.  But this is a problem endemic not only to India but to all our neighbours as well.

In the lecture given by me in Karachi in January this year, being the first lecture in memory of Justice Nasim Hasan Shah, former Chief Justice of Pakistan, I had spoken of poverty as the greatest challenge to human rights.  This is something which very many world leaders and thinkers have been researching for long periods of time, as is  apparent from their writings. To quote:

Pope Francis said:  “Human rights are not only violated by terrorism, repression or assassination, but also by unfair economic structures that creates huge inequalities.”

 U.N. Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson said: “Extreme poverty…is the greatest denial of the exercise of human rights. You don't vote, you don't participate in any political activity, your views aren't listened to, you have no food, you have no shelter, your children are dying of preventable diseases - you don't even have the right to clean water. It's a denial of the dignity and worth of each individual which is what the Universal Declaration proclaims.”

Tom Campbell in his paper titled “Poverty as a violation of Human Rights” said: “…approaching poverty through the prism of human rights is to lift it from the status of a social problem to that of an unavoidable imperative. To talk of poverty in terms of human rights violations is to endorse the parity and inter-connection of basic social and economic rights with fundamental civil and political rights... Torture is held to be unacceptable, poverty merely unfortunate. The idea of poverty as a human rights violation is clearly intended to send a powerful moral message that this bifurcation of human rights is a thing of the past.”

Nelson Mandela said: “Overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity.  It is an act of justice.  It is the protection of a fundamental human right, the right to dignity and a decent life.”

I believe that we, the members of the Bar, have an equal part to play in bringing to the attention of the Supreme Court of India and the High Courts, through Public Interest Litigations, the need to tackle this great insult to the very foundation of our Constitution.   We, the members at the Bar, have been filing Public Interest Litigations,  where the deprivations and sufferings of the people have been brought to the Court and on each time, the Court has risen to the occasion and has been issuing far reaching orders to remedy the menace.  We have a number of us in Parliament and, perhaps, in the Legislatures of the State as well, who would have a duty to raise these issues and ensure that August 15 is not independence merely for the better placed citizens of this country, but also independence for the deprived classes of our fellowmen.