Eight eminent personalities, including former Supreme Court judge J Chelameswar and ex-Chief Election Commissioner SY Quraishi, have appealed to people to "introspect and audit" the working of the Constitution ahead of the 70th anniversary of the Republic. "Is the Constitution a mere administrative manual which enables the elected governments to claim legitimacy for abuse of power, and allows the citizens to convert liberty into license disregarding rights of others? Is it simply another text penned by ink, or a sacred text written in the blood of innumerable martyrs who transcended the barriers of caste, religion, region, ethnicity and language?" they asked in an open letter.
