A few examples will best substantiate this example. Take for instance the reservation for the SC and ST students in colleges and universities. Not only the age limits for the admissions relaxed, but also the minimum acceptable academic requirements. This often results in the admission of academically weak student who often find it difficult to cope up with the high standards and tend to drop out of college. Apart from the failure of the student there is also a question of a waste of seat in the institution and, most importantly the loss of opportunity to a more deserving student. Logically, rather than lowering the standards, it would be more appropriate to help these students to improve themselves and attain the required standards. But the government and the politicians don’t support that because they want the vote from the lower caste. Lower caste constitutes a major part of the Indian population. So by giving the “lower caste” this unwanted and harmful opportunity the government wants to increase its popularity.

            This same problem was reservation occurs in the job market also. Incompetent people are offered the job whereas highly educated people remain unemployed. As per as the Indian Constitution, the system of job and education reservations was to be sparingly used with the utmost caution and with the least amount of time. However the system has been grossly abused. Instead of declining, the culture of reservations has been increased over time thereby severely distorting the present situation. The government and the politicians over the years exploited the system for their own benefit. Many eligible candidates do not do not find a place due to the reservation policy that has been purposefully implemented by the government. This is basically a violation of the human rights. Every individual is not been getting the equal opportunity as they are suppose to get according to the Constitution.

           There has been a recent incident where the government has shown its unconstitutional behavior. According to Article 20 of the Indian Constitution “No person shall be prosecuted and punished for the same offense more than once” (http://www.constitution.org/cons/india/p03020.html). Dhananjay Chaterjee of West Bengal was hanged till death on July 2004 in charge for raping and murdering a 14-year-old girl in 1990. Dhananjay was the security guard of the place where the victim Hetal Parekh lived. He was charged of raping and then brutally murdering the 14-year-old girl in her own apartment. Dhananjay was in the prison for the last 14 years until he was executed in July 2004.

I’m not supporting the incident, what Dhananjay did to the 14-year-old Hetal Parekh. I’m just trying to prove my point that whether Dhananjay was prosecuted and punished for the same offense more than once. He served 14 years in the prison and also he was given death sentence by the government. Mahasweta Devi, a famous social activist and writer in India echoed her voice saying “If Chaterjee was to be hanged, why was he left to languish in the jail for 10 years before the matter was considered worth taking note of?” (http://in.rediff.com/news/2004/aug/04capital.htm).

Rape, murder, and criminal offenses are a day-to-day incident in India. Is every person committing this heinous crime, punished? There has been a case recently where a famous film actor in India, Salman Khan killed a person in a car accident in suburban Mumbai. He allegedly ran over five people sleeping on the pavement of suburban Bandra in Mumbai while driving home from a late night party. “One of them, a 38 year-old bakery worker from the U.P., Narulla Khan, died on the spot and the others were hospitalized.” He was examined and was found guilty. But what happened? Nothing. Right now he is leading a normal doing films and earning millions of dollars. Despite being a public menace Salman Khan continues to be a media favorite. Within weeks no one will remember that he has killed an innocent man and he will be back on page three, reserved for celebrity activities. There are enough famous lawyers to defend him, enough adoring police officers to mess up the whole case and enough reporters and journalists to sing his praise and offer excuses for his behavior. But in comparison the same Indian Government for killing a 14-year-old girl hanged Dhananjay Chaterjee till death after he spent 14 years of his life in prison. Killing is killing no matter who did it and from what background he comes from. People from the higher society and with a lot of money and power get out quite easily. Even if the government is fully aware of the whole incident, they don’t take the necessary step against the powerful group but they always try to show their power on the poorer lot. But according to the Constitution, every person should be treated equally, no matter what his or her background is. Our founding fathers has conceived the future society as a whole where every single person would get the same opportunity and equal rights. We think we are modern but we still are living in the old world, where the rich people dominate the entire society and the minorities or the poorer people has to face the inequality forced by the government. Today’s society is not what the founding fathers had conceived and written in the Constitution. Today’s society is where money talks and higher society is where human rights exist.

Another explicit example of human rights violation is the discrimination and violence against women. God made us all equal but discrimination against women has come and existed through centuries. Women are always considered inferior in compare to men. They are never given equal social status nor they are given the deserved respect. Most often women face abuse from their employers, husbands, families and community members. Violence against women in the form of eve-teasing, rape, wife-beating and dowry deaths has shown no signs of abating even as India is taking a big economic leap in an increasingly globalize world. Women are denied an essential part of the protection that the human rights system described in the Constitution is suppose to provide. Most often the state dismisses the majority of violence performed against women as domestic matters. By this way they allow this violence against women to continue. In other words it sends a clear message that the violence against women is condoned. Human rights should be practiced universally, to all people, at all times, and in all places. But is it done that way? Does the government and courts take enough measures so that these basic human rights, described in the Constitution is protected.

The Indian Constitution is one of the most respected, and elaborated constitutions in the whole world. It is very well defined and everyone is given importance in it. The founding fathers spent a lot of their valuable time in writing the Constitution in such a way that everyone is given equal rights and no one in the entire society is discriminated. But in this modern society do we really follow whatever is written in the Constitution or we just pretend to follow? The government and the court always tend to misinterpret the way things have been written in the Constitution. For example, as described earlier the reservation system was initiated by the founding fathers to help the people of the lower caste to get a better and equal chance in the society. But at present the reservation policy is used to restrict the common people instead of helping the people of the lower caste. The Constitution also suggests of giving everybody equal status in the social field. But has it been ever followed this way? There has been always a barrier that separated the rich and the poor. The poor people never get the same social standing and human rights facilities in comparison to the rich people. As the present scenario is concerned, everything depends on the hands of the government and the politicians who never think about the benefit of the people. With power they become selfish and always try to do things that help them. “Before Independence we saw politicians like Mahatma Gandhi, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Jawaharlal Nehru and many others who didn’t even care to bestow their life for the benefit of the country”(Hiro). But in comparison to that modern politics and politicians can put their country under stake for their own benefit. So in brief it can be concluded by saying that though we have a well written Constitution in India, but it is in the wrong hand of some selfish and power loving people who utilize it to their own benefit.

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