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Rights and duties go hand in hand. One's right becomes another's duty
and vice-versa. Out of the two which takes precedence is always a point of
debate. The rights and duties which are indispensable for a man being
part and parcel of society have been enshrined in the Constitution as the
Fundamental Rights and Duties. The Constitution covers a broad spectrum
of domains to protect the rights of the common man by introducing six
rights as Fundamental Rights.
Rights are part of democracy, not the whole. If unions think they have a
right to strike (with no responsibility to customers), if employers think they
have a right to lockouts (with no responsibility to employees' welfare), if
the press thinks it has a right to present news as pure entertainment
(without thinking about how it will impact social attitudes), if legislators
think they can disrupt Parliament or Assemblies at will (without asking
themselves why they have been elected in the first place), how can
democracy work? If the parts don't work democratically, how can the
whole be called a democracy?
I may have a 'right' to walk on clean pavements, but is the issue merely
one of me demanding my 'rights' or is someone, somewhere not taking his
'responsibilities' seriously? Don't municipal officers and political leaders
have a responsibility to educate municipal workers about their
responsibilities and motivate them to keep streets clean?
In a group of 100, 10 may be a minority, but within this group of 10, nine
is a majority. The 10 who claim minority status vis-a-vis a larger majority
have a responsibility to ensure that they practice internally what they
preach to outsiders. They cannot deny human rights to their own internal
minorities what they claim as minority rights with the world outside.