PROF. DR MAHENDRA PAL SINGH

Prof. Dr Mahendra Pal Singh
Chancellor, Central University of Haryana
Visiting Prof., National Law University Delhi

Message
An electrical engineer by education and profession Shri K.C. Agrawal, after having earned national and international recognition as electrical engineer and currently engaged in the production of electric switchgears as an industrialist, has produced a remarkable book on what ails our country and how can it be rescued from it. The title of the book "India in Shambles" and its subtitle "Only the Judiciary can Save Us" are indicative of the two aspects of the book. The subtitle gives an impression of the book being on legal discipline. While that impression is not totally misplaced, true to its title the book is primarily centred on the malaise from which India suffers, their causes and the remedies to get rid of them. For the understanding of these causes the author introduces the readers to the ideals that led our freedom fighters in the struggle for our freedom from foreign yoke, the meticulousness with which they incorporated those ideals in our Constitution to be realised through a democratic structure and governance. The details on this theme such as the deliberations in the Constituent Assembly, and working of the Constitution and prominent pronouncements of the Supreme Court have been worked out with the accuracy and decisive details which only someone well versed in the making and working of the Constitution could do. But in doing so the author has not deviated from his primary theme of telling our law and policy makers as well as those who are entrusted with the implementation of these laws and policies as to where and how they have moved away from the ideals of our freedom fighters and the makers of the Constitution. In the process he serves well his goal of educating the common citizen of these deviations and failures so that they could not only exercise their right of vote carefully in making or unmaking of the governments once in five years but could also scrutinise their acts on day to day basis and challenge them wherever they go wrong.

The author goes into minute and multiple details of everything that has gone wrong with our people and the country from demography, disability, economy to swindling and corruption to disintegration in fraternity and integrity in the society by not following the ideals incorporated in the Constitution and how could the judiciary set them right. He does not rest with the pointing out of these mistakes and shortcomings but also works out the detail that could lead to the new dawn in our country and society. Prominently he works out the details that can remove poverty and usher prosperity in the country. These details include identifying and utilisation of our multiple natural resources, redesigning of our villages and cities, population control, improvement in the education system, water and disaster management, optimisation of power generation, improvement in the environment which has acquired hazardous proportions, and emphasis on information technology and research and development. That is how, the author suggests, our country will be transformed into an ideally advanced and prosperous society to be looked at by the rest of the world.

Most of the details that are also part of the common knowledge the author has supported from newspapers clippings that have been referred to in the main part of the book to substantiate the points the author is making at that place. Thus the book provides a complete and a transparent picture of what ails us and how the concerted effort on the part of our law and policy makers as well as their implementers and also the common men and women of this country can cure it. The subtitle of the book gives an impression as if only the judiciary can be our saviour from all these ills. But going through the book one finds no special emphasis on the judiciary. What the author seems to be emphasising is that the judiciary is one of the major organs in our constitutional system of governance that has the custody of the Constitution. As watchman over the functioning of our constitutional organs and laws and policies behind them the law and policy makers and their implementers do not deviate from their mandated path.

The book is not meant for experts in any particular branch of knowledge. It is as much of interest to common person as to an expert in various aspects of organisation and working of a good governance and society in this country. As a matter of fact while it provides much required guidance to our experts in various vital spheres of our life and to our policy makers and its implementers at different levels of our governance, it also gives much required education and guidance to the common citizens. Therefore, the book must be circulated and read widely. I wish it could also be made available in Hindi and other major regional languages to be accessible to every citizen of the country.

I hope the author will continue to devote his time and energy in the task of upliftment of our society which he has richly demonstrated in the production of this book. I congratulate him for his devotion and wish him all success in the goal he has set for himself of the transformation of our society in line with the goals which our freedom fighters had envisioned for us and later incorporated in our Constitution to be realised by us.
11 November 2016
Prof. Dr Mahendra Pal Singh