When Duties Eclipse Rights: Modi’s Letter Affirms Gandhi’s Fears of ‘Authoritarian’ Rule

In his letter to the citizens on Constitution Day on November 26, Prime Minister Narendra Modi waxed eloquent on the citizens’ primary responsibility to perform duties without in any way upholding their justiciable Fundamental Rights enshrined in the constitution or other constitutional rights central to the individuals to lead a dignified life.

In that letter, he referred to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Birsa Munda and Guru Tegh Bahadur and very fallaciously claimed that they gave primacy to duties which Modi claimed “..the constitution also emphasises through a dedicated chapter on fundamental duties in Article 51 A.”

“These duties guide us on how to collectively achieve social and economic progress,” he wrote, invoking Mahatma Gandhi who, according to Modi “believed that a duty well performed creates a responding right and that real rights are a result of the performance of duty.”

Modi acted against Gandhi’s resolution on Fundamental Rights

Modi is right in quoting Gandhi who said rights of individuals flowed from the duties they do. But this is just one part of the vision of Gandhi as far as binary of rights and duties are concerned. He, while flagging the necessity of the citizens and individuals discharging their duties, never shied away to proclaim that they should simultaneously fight to secure their rights and defend them with all their might in case those rights stood violated by the powers that be or by customs and regressive social practices.

Gandhi himself moved a resolution on Fundamental Rights in 1931 in the Karachi session of the Indian National Congress and it, among others, contained, Freedom of Press, Freedom to Profess Religion, equal rights and obligations of all citizens, without any bar on account of sex and above all religious neutrality of the state.

Also read: ‘Recasting Constitution’: Why Modi’s Emphasis on Duties Goes Against Constitution

All these are integral to the constitution of India. Tragically, Modi is violating all these rights. It was glaringly demonstrated on the eve of the Constitution Day on November 25 when as the prime minister, representing the state, he unfurled the saffron flag on top of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya and thereby violated the ideal of neutrality of the state to religion.

Even earlier on January 22, 2024 while participating in the consecration ceremony of the Ram Temple he violated the religious neutrality of the state by saying that “Ram is Rashtra (Ram is the state),” and “Dev is Desh (a deity is the country)”. His action and pronouncements were completely negating his duty to uphold the constitutional vision of India anchored on secularism which is the basic structure of our constitution. 

Gandhi flagged rights and duties simultaneously

Modi only selectively quotes Gandhi to defend his indefensible action of giving primacy to duties over rights. In fact, Gandhi while proclaiming that rights cannot be obtained without performing duty emphasised with equal force that rights need to be safeguarded with vigour. In a letter to M.S. Masani on June 4, 1934, almost three years after he moved the resolution on Fundamental Rights, he wrote, “What is necessary is that labourers or workers should know their rights and should also know how to assert them”. While saying so, he also remarked, “And since there never has been any right with-a corresponding duty, in my opinion a manifesto is incomplete without emphasising the necessity of performance of duty and showing what that duty is.”

The simultaneous emphasis on rights and duties remained the hallmark of his idea of Satyagraha which remained the fulcrum of the non-violent struggle for our independence. It clearly shows that in the binary of rights and duties, Gandhi never understood in terms of the primacy of duties by completely putting the rights of people into oblivion.

Gandhi’s apprehensions

More importantly, Modi has materialised Gandhi’s apprehensions that a ruler in India would urge citizens to do their duties and would solely arrogate to himself the rights he would enjoy while excluding the citizens.

On June 28, 1947 in his speech at a prayer meeting in New Delhi he expressed his fear that “he who is ruler for a moment gets it into his head that he has been created by God solely to rule over people, that he has the right to hang some, to imprison others and to fine some others. He wants that all the duties should be discharged by the people. He says he has derived his right to rule from God.”

Modi in his letter to the citizens on Constitution Day has done exactly the same thing as was feared by Gandhi almost two months before India’s independence. 

While campaigning during the 2024 general elections, Modi made a preposterous claim that God has sent him with a purpose and he was conscious of himself as "a non-biological being". And now he wants citizens to do their duties without, in any way, mentioning how he has set an example for the country so that others could follow him.

Gandhi cautioned that “…there are no such two classes here that one of them should exercise only rights and the other discharge only duties”. “If a ruler shirks his duties while the people do theirs then the people become the ruler,” he remarked. He, therefore, observed that a ruler by doing his duty and considering himself as the trustee of his people would survive. Gandhi then cautioned that “.. if he becomes authoritarian he cannot survive in this age”.

By expecting citizens to perform duties while he himself exercises rights, Modi is behaving like an authoritarian chosen by God to rule, thereby putting at stake the very survival of India’s constitution and democracy.

S.N. Sahu served as Officer on Special Duty to President of India K.R. Narayanan.

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