In his authoritative treatise on the Indian Constitution, The Indian Constitution: Cornerstone of a Nation, Granville Austin made the interesting point that the entire process of the drafting of the Constitution was marked by two features distinctive to an Indian style of politics — consensus and accommodation. Austin clarified that ‘accommodation’ was not to be confused with ‘compromise’. The principle of decision-making by consensus rather than majority vote, Austin suggested, was India’s contribution to modern politics and democratic governance.
Similarly, the principle of accommodation was not just one of seeking a. . .