Fundamental duties are mere cosmetic addition to the Indian constitution with no teeth attached to it’. What is your view on the statement and provide justification for your stand
Answers
Answer:
The fundamental duties have been incorporated in the Constitution with the mere object to remind every citizen that while enforcing his fundamental rights, he must also be conscious of his fundamental duties. Rights and duties and correlative. No right can exist without correlative duty. The right of one may be the duty of the other. These duties would help to strengthen our democracy. These provisions are made for dealing with anti national activities, whether by individual or associations.
These Duties have been added to implement the recommendations of the Swaran Singh Committee reported in 1976. None of the Western countries specifically provides the duties of the citizens. On the other hand, the Constitutions of socialist countries lay great emphasis on the duties. These are intended to create psychological consciousness among the citizens and are of merely educative value. The Swaran Singh Committee had suggested that Parliament should have power to pass laws under which penalities and punishment could be imposed for non-compliance with or refusal to observe these duties. But the suggestion was rejected.
Part IV-A of the Constitution, which contains the Fundamental Duties of the Citizens of India, was added by the Constitution (42nd Amendment Act, 1976. It contains Aticle 51 A only.
Justification of “Fundamental duties are addition to Indian constitution:
Any democratic country with a constitution must have a certain framework for the citizens. Since the citizens enjoy fundamental rights in the country, they must also abide by the law to perform their fundamental duties. When a citizen refuses to carry out his duties, as mentioned in the constitution, democracy becomes chaos in the country. It is essential to keep in mind that, one must perform his fundamental duties, before exercising his rights.