I suppose one must blame the Constitution. When it starts with – WE THE PEOPLE – is it any surprise then that people begin to believe that it is all about them?
We could start at the beginning, but let us go even before that to a time when barristers trained in Britain began to return home and found that they were getting no respect. They gathered around a table and demanded a piece of the cake because after all it was baked from ingredients grown in their backyard. This did not cut any cake until they entered the kitchen and talked to the staff and convinced them to join their demand for a slice of the cake since the staff had actually baked it. The squatters, who had occupied the house through trickery and deceit, were forced to vacate once the kitchen staff took away the salt. In the meanwhile, the kitchen staff had been emboldened and wanted a piece of the cake too. This brings us to the beginning.
We could start at the beginning, but let us go even before that to a time when barristers trained in Britain began to return home and found that they were getting no respect.
The barristers got together and wrote down the rules that would govern the house now that the squatters had been evicted. The kitchen staff did not much care what was written in the rules so long as the recipes did not change. To begin with, things were fine, everyone was happy believing they could do as they pleased, that is they were independent. But they soon realised that the rules had not really changed from the past, only a new preamble had been added and no one had bothered to read beyond the preamble. There was simmering discontent but the barristers cleverly diverted their attention by pointing to the west or the east. The commotion finally brought in the gardeners from the backyard, who were toiling to grow the ingredients. They soon realised that they were getting no slice of cake, only the crumbs. It took them a little while but soon they too were demanding a slice of the cake. The clients, who had retained the barristers, decided that a change of lawyers was required, so the brief was withdrawn from the old family concern and given to a rival firm that had been struggling to get a seat at the table. In what could be called a masterstroke, the new legal team declared that cake was a western and leftist concoction. To restore the dignity of ancient cuisine they would provide chapatis to all, they promised, not just one or two but fifteen. Chapatis did not appeal to the clients but they pretended to applaud the masterstroke because they knew that they could then have the whole cake and eat it too without anyone asking for a slice. This not only transformed the mood among the toiling gardeners but the kitchen staff was absolutely elated and proclaimed that now the world would get a taste of their ancient cuisine.
But they soon realised that the rules had not really changed from the past, only a new preamble had been added and no one had bothered to read beyond the preamble.
This shining mood prevailed for some years but then murmurs of grumbling began to be heard, and the old family concern began to demand that the case be handed over to them. But the stable genius who was heading the rival team pulled out another arrow from his ancient quiver and stunned everyone to return to the table to occupy an even bigger chair. Now the stable genius was very confident that he could shoot more arrows from the ancient quiver without ever missing the target. With arrows being fired in such quick succession, the ancient quiver soon had only one arrow left which was guaranteed to take out the root of the problem and restore ancient harmony and hierarchy. As our ancient wisdom exhorts, destroy the reed so there can be no annoying flute music. The western, but probably not leftist, notion that all are created equal, must be eradicated from our ancient land, if people know their place then milk and honey will certainly flow. So the final arrow was aimed at the preamble and it was replaced by the ancient text and PEOPLE were put in their respective places.
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