‘Heartening to see young people protest’
NEW DELHI: In an apparent reference to the ongoing protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), former president Pranab Mukherjee said on Thursday it was heartening to see a large number of people, particularly the young, voicing their views through “peaceful protests” and reposing their belief in the Constitution.
Consensus, he said, is the lifeblood of democracy, which thrives on discussing, arguing, and event dissent.
Mukherjee was speaking at the first Sukumar Sen memoral lecture organised by the election commission, instituted in the memory of the first chief election commissioner (CEC) of India.
Protests have broken out in the country since Parliament passed the CAA on December 12. The amended law fast-tracks citizenship-by-naturalisation for “illegal migrants” from six religious communities, other than Muslims, who faced persecution and fled from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.The only condition was that such people should have entered the country before December 31, 2014.
“Indian democracy has been tested time and again. The last few months have witnessed people come out on the streets in large numbers, particularly the young to voice their views on issues which in their opinion are important. Their assertion and belief in the Constitution of India is particularly heartening to see. Democracy thrives in listening, deliberating, discussing, arguing and even dissent,” said the former president.
Mukherjee said the present
“wave of largely peaceful protests shall once again enable the deepening of democratic roots.”
He lauded the efforts of the election commission to have ensured transparent elections in independent India. It was the poll body’s duty to ward off doubts and criticism against its role as an election watchdog, he said.
Mukherjee also spoke on the need to remove the freeze to increase the number of Lok
Sabaha and Rajya Sabha seats as the present strength of Parliament, he said, is disproportionate to the large size of the electorate. The number of seats should ideally be increased to about 1,000 in the Lok sabha with a corresponding rise in the number of members of the Rajya Sabha and the state legislatures, he said.
The last enhancement of seats in the Lok Sabha took place in 1977 on the basis of the 1971 census; the population then was estimated to be around 550 million.
“Thereafter there has been an embargo on increasing the number of seats in Parliament and state assemblies till the year 2026. This has resulted in the fact that the number of voters per Lok Sabha constituency has risen to more than 16 lakh. In the last general election more than 90 crore voters were enrolled and were eligible to vote,” he said.