'No reason to exclude sovereignty from ULFA-Centre talks' By A Staff Reporter GUWAHATI, Nov 3 - There can't be any earthly reason for not discussing the issue of sovereignty by the Central Government with the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), said noted political thinker and former Vice-Chancellor of Gauhati University (GU) Dr DP Barooah here today. He was speaking to The Assam Tribune on the issue. "If one were strong on one's convictions about anything, including sovereignty, why one should shy away from it," wondered the noted political thinker.
Everybody knows that even after recognising the supremacy of the Constitution of India, the state of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) was permitted to have its separate constitution and flag. The J&K constitution under its Article 3 has declared the state to be an integral part of India. The voluntariness of a union is based on the voluntary participation of its member units, said Dr Barooah. However, the Indian union did not launch itself as a voluntary union. Dr B R Ambedkar stated this in the Constituent Assembly. "My view is that India is a nation state-in-the-making. Because, the constitutional legacy of the freedom movement and the objectives resolution of the Constituent Assembly relating to the creation of fully autonomous states, including residuary powers, were not written into the Constitution by its makers. " I believe the post-independence feelings of alienation and economic grievances in various states of India, including the NE, sprang precisely from the denial of rightful status of autonomy to the states or 'federating' units. Therefore, a fresh look at the fundamental overhaul of the Indian Constitution is the need of the hour in the interest of national and social harmony," he said. Giving a background of the concept of sovereignty, he said that the modern state system arose after the end of the 30-year war among the European nations in 1648 AD. The modern state system is based on its sovereign characteristic, meaning thereby, - an independent state is not subject to the control of any other state whatever. The United Nations is based on the sovereign equality of its member states whether big or small. But today, he said, the concept of sovereignty naturally had to make room for accommodating the international laws, say relating to human rights. The concept of absolute sovereignty is precisely not there in its crucial meaning. For one thing, a sovereign state is bound by international laws or covenants to which it is a party. Secondly, when international agreements are signed to which states are parties, naturally, the states concerned surrender their sovereignty in the context of obligations they undertake to abide by, said Dr Barooah. In this context, one may cite the instance of the new GATT agreement signed at the end of the Uruguay round whence arose the WTO. An agreement under the WTO regime is the GATS. If one looks at the definition of 'services' as enunciated under the GATS, it is found that sovereign governments will have no unlimited say in all trade-related matters dictated by the WTO. Which is why, one is prone to say that under the WTO regime, states party to WTO (and these are mostly third world countries) will have no other function to discharge other than the executive, the judicial and the administrative matters. This shows that this definition of 'services' in GATS is an infringement of the economic sovereignty of a country, said DR Barooah. Continuing, he said, combine this with the World Bank and the IMF conditionalities. A country, receiving external aid from these international financial institutions suffers in matters of economic sovereignty, he observed. So, the concept of sovereignty, as it stood originally and at the time of Henry Maine's definition of sovereignty, - " If a determinate human superior not in the habit of obedience to a like superior, receives habitual obedience from the bulk of the society, then that society, including the superior, is sovereign and independent." Coming to the Indian Constitution, he said, "I am of the view that sovereignty of the Indian state is shared between the Centre and the states. And after the constitutionalisation of the Panchayati Raj institutions by the 73rd and the 74th amendments to the Constitution in 1992, I am of the view that state authorities are to be shared at the district level also covering the local authorities. This I say having regard to the definition of 'the state' as given in Article 12 of the Constitution of India. "Therefore, my view is that if someone irrespective of individual or collective entities wish to discuss secularism, socialism and democracy as given in the preamble to the Indian Constitution, what earthly reason could be there for not discussing the issue," said Dr Barooah. _______________________________________________ assam mailing list [email protected] http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
