Right to Equality – Nyuntam Aay Yojana: NYAY – Equality of what?

Equality forms part of the basic structure of the Constitution of India. The Preamble to the Constitution of India provides for equality of status and opportunity.

Article 14 reads as, ‘the State shall not deny to any person equality before the law and equal protection of laws within the territory of India’. This Article is the embodiment the principle of Rule of Law. There are two expressions used in Article 14 –

• equality before the law, and
• equal protection of the laws.

The expression ‘equality before law’ means that amongst equals law shall be equal and shall be equally administered. The expression ‘equal protection of laws’ owes its origin to the doctrine of Rule of Law –

• SUPREMACY OF LAW/Absence of Arbitrary Power – it means that no man should be punished except for the breach of the law.
• EQUALITY BEFORE THE LAW – it implies equal subjugation of all citizens to the ordinary law of the land administered by the ordinary courts of law.
• PRIMACY OF THE RIGHTS OF THE INDIVIDUAL – constitution is the result of the rights of the individuals rather than being the source of them.

Equal protection of the laws means the right to equal treatment in similar circumstances, both in privileges conferred and liabilities imposed. Equal protection requires affirmative action by the State towards unequal’s by providing them facilities and opportunities.

Equality was first advanced historically as equality before the law.  Then it evolved into equality of opportunity; and, in socialist theory, is framed as equality of results. Equality of results dissolve the relationship between being able to enjoy the rewards of one's production and the confiscation of those rewards for distribution to others, as seen in Marx's slogan, "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need."

Disconnects between work and reward undermines the motivation to work and to innovate. Why work or take risks when the profits, if one is successful, go to others? If the state takes away an incentive to work and produce, the country ends up taking away the producers. Even Stalin, wished to maintain some connection between production and distribution: he inserted into the Soviet Constitution the modified slogan, "From each according to his abilities, to each according to his work."

The object of socialism is supposedly to increase economic equality by levelling out the wealth in society among individuals and families. This is done by taking wealth from those with more than the average and redistributing it to those with less than the average. As wealth will not usually be voluntarily surrendered, the redistribution would have to be enforced by government agencies, backed by laws and administrative regulations. Socialism in practice, however, has usually resulted in members of the governments redistributing the wealth they seize to themselves and their associates.

Economic equality that requires a strong government usually ends up resulting in political inequality: political leaders and the bureaucratic elite are in political, and with it economic, control. In the socialist political hierarchy, those at the top are close to absolute power; those below have no power.

Socialism has proven incompatible with democracy. Socialist countries have tended to become arrogant dictatorships, one-party states, totalitarian in culture and security. Security agencies have a free hand to enforce conformity. Thatcher is quoted as saying, "the problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money."

Activists for equality-of-result demand an even more radical disconnect between work and reward. RaGa is peddling his “Nyuntam Aay Yojana, or NYAY - Minimum Income Guarantee" scheme advocating state economic support for those "unable or unwilling to work." Even within his party, at present, leaders do not bind themselves to observe the laws to which they are supporting RaGa to bind the rest of the country. As Lee Atwater reportedly put it, "The dawgs don't like the dawg food."

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