'Misinterpretation of Constitution's basic structure needs to be prevented'

New Delhi, Sep 27 There is every reason to be proud of the basic structure of the Constitution of India but the "problem" lies in the way its "basic structure is often misinterpreted", says a veteran bureaucrat who had put in his papers as the Union Home Secretary and Secretary Justice in 1993 as "the last straw was the demolition of the Babri Masjid".

He also feels that "wide ranging reforms of the parliamentary system is the answer to the present untenable situation" and that the "unworkable" institution of state Governors should be abolished.

"The Supreme Court has pronounced in the Kesavananda Bharati case in 1973 that the power to amend the Constitution under Article 368, wide as it was, did not include the power to abrogate the Constitution or alter its basic structure or framework. There is every reason to be proud of the basic structure of the Constitution. The problem is with the way the basic structure is often misinterpreted," Madhav Godbole, now 85, who had 17 months to go in his tenure when he quit the IAS, told in an interview of his book "India - A Federal Union Of States; Fault Lines, Challenges and Opportunities"