The French people of 1792 promised a government “of the people, by the people, for the people.” Today, India must decide if that promise was sincere or hollow. Will we continue to tolerate a democratic system that serves the few, or will we truly let “we the people” rewrite the rules? The time to act is now. Let us take a cue from revolutionary history and meet in an assembly – a Second Republic’s Constituent Assembly – to forge a constitution that restores the dignity, justice and participation that the poor have been denied. Only then can India claim to be a democracy in which liberty, equality and fraternity are more than words.