‘The Indian Constitution is thousands of years old,’ proclaimed Rahul Gandhi the other day, with the confidence of a man who once declared that potatoes can be turned into gold via a magic machine in Gujarat. One can only assume he was channelling the same visionary streak – part ancient wisdom, part WhatsApp forward.
In RaGa’s telling, the Constitution – which was, for the record, adopted in 1949 and came into effect on January 26, 1950 – is not just a modern legal document, but a sort of spiritual anthology featuring the thoughts of Ambedkar, Phule, Gandhi, Nehru, Guru Nanak, and Kabir. One half-expected him to add Chanakya, Charaka, and perhaps even the Pandavas while he was at it.
This revisionist timeline has left historians blinking and civics teachers weeping. Perhaps his old history and civics teacher should make him write an imposition – ten times over – getting the dates and facts right. Or better yet, send him back to school for a quick refresher on post-Independence India.
A republic of imagination
It is one thing to wax lyrical about India’s civilizational values. Quite another to confuse them with a document that begins with ‘We, the people…’ and is more footnote than folklore. Still, RaGa is not one to be shackled by such trivialities as dates, facts or institutional memory. Why let the Constituent Assembly get all the credit when you can rope in Guru Nanak and Kabir?
One wonders if he believes the Directive Principles were recited at satsangs in the 15th century. Or that Kabir, between dohas, opined on cooperative federalism.
The Constitution is a living document
What’s perhaps most endearing – or exasperating, depending on your caffeine level – is RaGa’s earnest delivery. His faux-philosophical tone is laced with wide-eyed wonder. It’s as if he has only just discovered that India has a Constitution and is determined to give it the mythological treatment. Why be bound by 1950 when 1500 BCE is available?
In the pantheon of political gaffes, this one doesn’t even crack the top five. But it’s telling. For a man still searching for narrative clarity, anchoring the Constitution in a thousand-year past feels less like reverence and more like convenient confusion.
The Indian Constitution is a living document. It does embody the ideas of equality, liberty, fraternity, and justice. But it was debated, amended, and adopted by a group of real people in real time – not a spiritual WhatsApp group spanning centuries.
Republic Day is celebrated not to honour a myth but to mark the day that the Constitution came into force – January 26, 1950 – when India declared itself a sovereign, democratic republic. Not when sages first gathered around a banyan tree to hum Preamble verses in unison.
So here’s a humble suggestion to Rahul Gandhi, carrier of ancient truths and amateur archivist: next time you invoke the Constitution, try reading the cover page first. The date’s right there.