Tamil Nadu government calls for fresh constitution

Jan 20, 2007, 18:15 GMT

Chennai, Jan 20 (IANS) Tamil Nadu Governor Surjit Singh Barnala Saturday said the central government should rewrite the constitution to better reflect the aspirations of marginalised people and minorities.

'To ensure holistic federalism and social justice, the constitution should be rewritten afresh,' Barnala observed while delivering his address at the opening of the assembly session.

This is the first time that any governor's customary address to an assembly has called for a new constitution.

The governor said the central government should keep pace with the changing times.

'The constitution has been amended about a hundred times. The change is inevitable in the evolution of mankind.

'In the past 50 years, the country's political, social and economic facets and needs of the working classes have radically changed.

'People belonging to the most backward, backward and scheduled castes besides scheduled tribes have been forced to do tight-rope-walking. To ensure social justice, gender rights and federalism, a complete review of the constitution is necessary,' the governor pointed out.

He recalled that C.N. Annadurai, the late founder of the ruling DMK party had said the same thing in the Rajya Sabha four decades back.

The governor's remarks were made in the backdrop of the Supreme Court verdict of Jan 11, which said all laws enacted after April 1973 and brought under the umbrella of the Ninth Schedule of the constitution are subject to judicial review.

The ruling brings into question the validity of a Tamil Nadu Act of 1993, providing for 69 percent reservation to various backward classes in educational institutes.

© 2007 Indo-Asian News Service