HAPPY REPUBLIC DAY !
A very happy Republic Day to all my countrymen at home and abroad ! But a question haunts me. Must we continue to be a member of the British Commonwealth of Nations when we pride ourselves as being a sovereign republic? Is it not demeaning to our status as a free country who the British despoiled of its wealth for several centuries which today forms the basis of its vaunted Commonwealth? Whose wealth is it after all that funds this erstwhile colonising country? Has Britain nothing to answer for all its misdeeds? Must we further capitulate before its neo-colonising influence and sell dignity and honour to join the rank of dependents, dominions and subject nations that must necessarily pay their subservient respects to the British sovereign, Her Majesty the Queen of England? Is there no shame in doing so? Have we won our independence, square and full, or have we still the colonial hangover which makes us mentally enslaved to our erstwhile masters? Why must our President show special respects to the Queen of England as if she is a superior being deserving so? The British Queen does not reciprocate to that effect with our President. Then why must he?
Now on a more serious note. It is rumoured that the Transfer of Power Treaty that granted us dominion status on 15 August, 1947 and, subsequently, supposedly not stood in the way of our being fully independent as a sovereign republic from 26 January, 1950 with the promulgation of the Constitution of India, actually contains specific features which have kept us legally bound as a dominion of Great Britain. This it is said on the basis of the fact that the Indian Independence Act which was passed in the British legislature legally made India a dominion of Britain on 15 August, 1947. The subsequent declaration of India as a sovereign republic was a unilateral legal measure adopted by India which was not corroborated by corresponding legislation in Great Britain. Hence, in the eyes of international law India continues to be dominion of Britain. Now, what is the truth about this murky matter, I would like to know from Constitutional experts on this auspicious day when we are celebrating the 72nd Republic Day. Are we fully independent as a nation or are we still the subjects of Her Majesty the Queen of England?
Written by Sugata Bose
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