E Namaskar well friends I heartily welcome you all to beab bhasha my audio visual podcast series on Dr Babas sahib edar this audio podcast Series has 54 short speeches on Dr Babas sah edar unraveling as many as 25 different dimensions of this multifaceted genius friends this podcast
Series is focused on Dr Babas sah edar his thoughts his actions his philosophy and most important L the kind of vision that he has seen for the nation as a whole that is what this podcast series is all about so let’s proceed well friends let’s continue our discussion of the historic role played
By Dr Babas edar as the principal architect of the Indian constitution in this episode episode 45 I’m going to talk about Dr Ed presentation of the final draft of the Indian constitution to the constituent assembly on November 25th 1949 which was approved the very next day November 26
1949 and precisely 2 months later India became Republic first let us understand the historical background the drafting committee for the constitution of India was elected by the constituent assembly on August 29 1947 and beginning from August 30th 1947 the drafting committee was engaged in the preparation of the draft
Constitution under the chairmanship of Dr babasai ambedkar the first draft as we discussed in the last two episodes was presented to the constituent assembly on 4th November 1948 and it contained 315 articles and eight schedules over the next 13 months constituent assembly went through three readings of the draft Constitution
Discussing and adopting the Articles of Constitution one by one while replying to the debate during the third and the final reading of the Constitution on November 25th 1949 Dr edar made an eloquent and spellbinding speech which is truly Timeless among other things Dr edar said and I quote him looking back
On the work of the constituent assembly it will now be 2 years 11 months and 17 days since we first met on December 9 1946 during this period the constitu assembly has all together held 11 sessions out of these 11 sessions the first six were spent in passing the objectives resolution and
Consideration of the reports of committees on fundamental rights on Union constitution on Union powers on provincial constitution on minorities and on the scheduled areas and scheduled tribes the 7th 8th 9th and 10th and 11th these sessions were devoted to the consideration of the draft Constitution these 11 sessions of the constituent assembly have
Consumed 165 days and out of these the assembly spent 14 days for the consideration of the draft Constitution when the draft Constitution was presented to the constituent assembly in all 7,635 amendments were tabled of which 2,400 73 amendments were actually moved in the house and Dr edar performed a
Herculian task of building consensus and defending the draft Constitution you can imagine this was a group of 295 or about 300 people the best Minds in the country talking about the future of the country and Dr edar singlehandedly did the job of building consensus among this Elite and the
Intellectual cream of the Indian Society at that time now that is no doubt an herculan task which only Dr ambedkar could complete in its final form the draft Constitution contained 395 articles and eight schedules what I’m going to talk about here is the part of the presentation that Dr
Babas ambedker made to the constituent assembly regarding the final draft of the Indian constitution then Dr edar added and I quote I mentioned these facts because at one stage it was being said that the assembly had taken too long a time to finish its work that it was going on
Leisurely and wasting public money it was said to be a case of neuro fiddling while Rome was burning is there any justification for the complaint let us note that the time consumed by constituent assemblies in other countries appointed for framing their constitutions to take few illustrations United States took 4 months in 7
1987 Canada took 2 years and 5 months in the year 1864 Australia took 9 years in the year 1891 and South Africa took one year in the year 1908 it is true that we have taken more time than what the American and South Africans did but we have not taken more
Time than the Canadian convention and much less than the Australian convention in making comparisons on the basis of uh the time consumed two things must be remembered one thing is that constitutions of America Canada South Africa and Australia are much smaller than Indian constitution our Constitution contains 395 articles while the American
Constitution has just seven articles the Canadian has 147 Australia has 127 and South Africans have 153 sections the second thing to be remembered is that the makers of the Constitutions of America Canada Australia and South Africa did not have to face the problem of amendments they were passed as mood
On the other hand this constituent assembly had to deal with as many as 2,473 amendments having regard to these facts the charge of dilatoriness seems to me quite unfounded and this assembly May well congratulate itself for having accomplished so formidable a task in so short a
Time then Dr edar went on to give credit to profusely thank all his colleagues he gave a lot of credit to Sir B Andra who was the Constitutional advisor to the constituent assembly Mr SN mukarji the chief draftsman of the Constitution then uh he also gave lot of
Credit to the members of the staff working with Mr mukarji then Dr ambedkar thanked the congress party which brought into proceedings a sense of order and discipline finally he thanked all the members of the constituent assembly and of course the president of the constituent assembly for the way in
Which he had conducted the proceedings of the assembly then Dr edar proceeds and I quote him I shall not enter into the merits of the Constitution because I feel however good a constitution may be it is sure to turn out bad because those who are called to work it happen to be a
Bad lot however bad a constitution may be it may turn out to be good if those who are called to work it happen to be a good Lord the working of a constitution does not depend wholly upon the nature of the Constitution Dr edar went on and I quote
Him again there is only one point of constitutional import to which I propose to make a reference a serious complaint is made on the ground that there is too much of centralization and that states have been reduced to municipalities it is clear that this view is not only an exaggeration but is
Also founded on a misunderstanding of what exactly the Constitution contrives to do the basic principle of Federalism is that the legislative and executive Authority is parion between the center and States not by any law to be made by the Center but by the Constitution itself this is what Constitution does
The states under our Constitution are in no way dependent upon the center for their legislative or executive Authority the center and the states are coequal in this matter it is difficult to see how such a constitution can be called centralism the first charge of centralization defeating federalism must
Therefore fall the second charge is that the center has been given the power to override the states the charge must be admitted but before condemning the Constitution for containing such overriding Powers certain considerations must be born in mind the first one is that these overriding powers do not form
The normal feature of the Constitution their use and operation are expressly confined to emergencies only the second consideration is could we avoid giving overriding powers to the center when an emergency has arisen those who do not admit the justification for such over riding powers to the center even in
Emergency do not seem to have a clear idea of the problem which lies at the root of the matter there can be no doubt that in the opinion of the vast majority of people the residual loyalty of the citizen in an emergency must be to the center and not the constituent
States for it is only the center which can work for a common end and for the general interest of the country as a whole here in lies the justification for giving the center certain overriding powers to be used in and emergence here Dr edar says here I could have ended
But my mind is so full of the future of our country that I feel I ought to take this occasion to give expression to some of my Reflections there on on January 26 1950 India will be an independent country what would happen to her independence will she maintain her
Independence or will will she lose it again this is the first thought that comes to my mind it is not that India was never an independent country the point is that she once lost the independence she had will she lose it a second time it is this thought which makes me most anxious
For the future what per me greatly is the fact that not only India has once before lost her independence but she lost it by the infidelity and treachery of some of her own people Dr edar then gives examples of lot of people including J Chand and
Others and then raises a question and I quote him will history repeat itself it is this thought which fills me with anxiety this anxiety is deepened by the realization of the fact that in addition to our enemies in the form of cast and Creeds we are going to have many
Political parties with diverse and opposing political Creeds will Indians place the country above their Creed or will they place the Creed above the country I do not know but this much is certain that if the parties placed Creed above the country our independence will be put in Jeopardy
For a second time and probably be lost forever this eventuality which we must all resolutely guard against we must be determined to defend our independence with the last drop of our blood Dr edar went on to add and I quote him again on January 26
1950 we are going to enter into a life of contradiction in politics we’ll have equality and in Social and economic life we will have inequality in politics we will be recognizing the principle of one man one vote and one vote one value in our social and economic life we shall by the
Reason of our social and economic structure continue to deny the principle of one man one value how long shall we continue to live this life life of contradictions how long shall we continue to deny equality in our social and economic life if we continue to deny it for
Long we will do so only by putting our political democracy at Peril we must remove this contradiction at the earliest possible moment or else those who suffer from the inequality will blow up the structure of political democracy which this constituent assembly has so laboriously built up
Unquote Dr edar added and I quote him again the second thing we are wanting in recognition of the principle of fraternity what does fraternity mean fraternity means a sense of common Brotherhood for All In Indians it is the principle which gives unity and solidarity to social life it is a difficult thing to
Achieve finally Dr edar says and I quote him Independence is no doubt a matter of Joy but let us not forget that this Independence has thrown on us great responsibilities by Independence we have lost the excuse of blaming the British for anything going wrong if Hereafter
Things go wrong we will have nobody to blame except ourselves there is a great danger of things going wrong times are changing fast people including our own are being moved by new ideologies they’re getting tired of government of the people they are prepared to have government for the
People and are indifferent whether it is the government of the people and by the people if we wish to preserve the constitution in which we have sought to enshrine the principle of government of the people for the people and by the people let us resolve not to be tardy in the
Recognition of the evils that lie across our path and which induce people to prefer government for the people to government by the people nor to be weak in our initiative to remove them this is the only way to to serve our country I know no better unquote this is where Dr edar
Concluded his magnificent speech I have only given you a part of that speech not the whole uh but this is a speech that made a lot of difference in the working of the constituent assembly let’s now turn to the reaction to the Constitution then and much later while many people
Credit Dr edar as the father of the Indian constitution even haing him as a modern Manu after the legendary author of the laws of Manu manui which ironically was put to fire by him in 1927 more recently in a serious indictment of Dr edar Aron Shi labeled him as the false
Manu sh’s criticism of Dr edar rests on three points first since the drafting committee was responsible only for shaping the Articles drafted by the specialized subcommittees whose suggestions were later discussed in the plenary sessions Dr edar could not have been in any position to influence the text of the Constitution secondly the
Guidelines for each article were decided by the congress party to which Dr edar was not prev thirdly Dr edar found himself in a minority on numerous occasions in the subcommittees the drafting committee and during the plenary sessions well friends Arun sh’s criticism of Dr bedar is blatantly false
Besides being grossly unfair in addition to being the chairman of the drafting committee Dr edar was a member of two committees the advisory committee and the powers Committee in the former case in fact he was a member of two important subcommittees the one on fundamental
Rights and also the one on rights of the minorities moreover even where Dr edar was not responsible for drafting the primary text that is to say preparing the first draft as the chairman of the drafting committee he was responsible for reformulating them in the form of articles for consideration of the constituent
Assembly furthermore the constituent assembly discussed several drafts and there were three readings of the draft and each time unmistakably it was Dr Eder who as the chairman of the drafting committee took the lead in directing the discussion and Firming of the formulations this is called the piloting of the Constitution just
Imagine Dr edar was facing 295 or about 300 people the most Brilliant Minds of the time they were all there all the intellectual cream leaders from all walks of life and Dr edar defended every article so it was not only drafting the Constitution but taking each Clause by
Clause by article by article conducting the discussion on the either side positive and negative and then building a consensus among them you can imagine even in a Housing Society meeting on a issue like uh in raising the salary of liftman people spend three hours debating that here we
Were talking about the future of a great country like India and 300 best Minds were debating it and the job of bringing out bringing about a consensus of views among all of them was truly an herculan task which which only Dr edar singlehandedly achieved even those editorial tasks
Which were willingly entrusted to Dr ambedkar on account of The Chronic absentismo that the drafting committee was subjected to as one of the members of the drafting committee TD Krishna machari who later became the Finance Minister of India admitted later and I quote him so it happened ultimately that
The burden of drafting this constitution fell on Dr edar and I have no doubt that we are grateful to him for achieved this task in a manner that is undoubtedly commendable unquote Mr Shi was nowhere there at that time here we are listening from the person who was there in that
Committee drafting committee as a member and one who witnessed that everything he is the one who has made this statement in this regard the commment made by Dr rajendra Prasad the chairman of the constituent assembly is perhaps most Illuminating again he was there all the time Mr Shi was
Nowhere Dr rajendra Prasad said and I quote sitting in the chair and watching watching the proceedings from day to day I have realized as nobody else could have with what Zeal and devotion the members of the drafting committee and especially it chairman Dr edar in spite of his indifferent Health have worked we
Could never make a decision which was or could be ever as right as as when we put him on the drafting committee and made him its chairman he has not only Justified his selection but has added luster to the work which he has done unquote it is therefore abundantly clear my friends
That arun’s criticism is entirely invalid emanating as it from some extraneous reasons which only he knows there is not an iota of doubt that Dr ambedkar played his decisive and determining role in the shaping of India’s Constitution not only did Dr edar redraft the committee’s proposals he followed them through the drafting
Committee and the constituent assembly to their logical end indeed the most balanced view about Dr ambedkar’s contribution came not from any Congressman or any Indian leader it came from Michael Brasa who was jawaharlal neu’s biographer he is the one who described Dr edar as the Chief Architect of the Indian constitution
And as the field general of the campaign for a new constitution unquote we did not even recognize Dr ambedkar as the principal architect of the Indian constitution it is the worldwide famous experts who understood appreciated the work gave him that title you know it is so sad that because of
His constant and enduring fights with Mahatma Gandhi congress party was never ever kind to him and the way they treated him not giving him bhat ratna for so long Dr Babas ambedkar mahapi niran took place on 6th December 1956 but he got bhat ratna way later in
1990 and that too when there was the non Congress government VP Singh’s government was in power how can you possibly explain this kind of apathy toward one of the finest leaders who laid the foundation of Modern India in terms of being the father of Indian constitution and I dare say the father
Of India’s Republic well friends we can conclude our session here uh but before I leave let me request you that if you like this podcast series please like it please share it please subscribe to it so long until we meet again real soon thank you Namaskar
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