1.
ADDRESSES ON THE
OCCASION OF THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE REPUBLIC OF INDIA
A function to mark the 50th Anniversary of the
Republic of India was held on 27 January 2000 in the Central Hall of Parliament
House. The function commenced with the playing of the National Anthem.
Subsequently, the Speaker, Lok Sabha, Shri G.M.C. Balayogi released the Special
Commemorative Plaque brought out by the Lok Sabha Secretariat. The Plaque
carried the logo of the 50th Anniversary of the Republic and a replica of the
Parliament House. Later, the Speaker, Lok Sabha also addressed the
distinguished gathering.
The Lok Sabha Speaker then requested the Prime
Minister, Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee to release the calligraphed copy of the
Constitution of India in Hindi. The calligraphy of the Hindi version of the
original Constitution was done by Shri Vasant Krishan Vaidya and elegantly
decorated and illuminated by Shri Nand Lal Bose. Later, the Prime minister,
Shri Vajpayee released the calligraphed copy of the Constitution of India in
Hindi and also addressed the gathering.
Excerpts from the historic speeches of Dr.
Rajendra Prasad, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar and Sardar
Vallabhbhai Patel were then relayed along with the visuals.
After that, the Minister of Communications, Shri
Ram Vilas Paswan, requested the Vice-President of India and Chairman, Rajya
Sabha, Shri Krishan Kant to release the Special Commemorative Stamp designed by
the eminent cartoonist, Shri Ranga and brought out by the Ministry of
Communications to mark the 50th Anniversary of our Republic. The Special
Commemorative Stamp was then released by the Vice-President, Shri Krishan Kant
who subsequently addressed the gathering.
Thereafter, the National Song Vande Mataram was
sung by Smt. Sudha Raghunathan, a renowned classical singer and Shri Hariharan,
a versatile vocalist.
The Minister of Culture, Youth Affairs and
Sports, Shri Ananth Kumar then requested the President of India, Shri K.R.
Narayanan, to release an album of Jana Gana Mana comprising VCD/CD and a
booklet brought out by the Department of Culture. Thereafter, the album of Jana
Gana mana was released by the President, Shri K.R. Narayanan who also
addressed the gathering.
The function concluded with the singing of the
National Anthem by a group of music maestros. The entire programme was telecast
and broadcast live throughout the nation.
On this occasion a booklet titled 50th
Anniversary of the Republic of India–Select Proceedings of the Constituent
Assembly relating to the Adoption and Signing of the Constitution was also
brought out by the Library and Reference, Research Documentation and
Information Service (LARRDIS) of the Lok Sabha Secretariat.
We reproduce below the texts of the Addresses by
the dignitaries at the function.
—Editor
ADDRESS BY THE SPEAKER, LOK SABHA,
SHRI G.M.C. BALAYOGI
Respected Rashtrapatiji, Respected Upa-Rashtrapatiji,
Honourable Pradhan Mantriji, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I consider it a distinct honour
to be here to welcome you all on this historic occasion. May I take this
opportunity to express our thanks to Respected Rashtrapatiji,
Upa-Rashtrapatiji and Pradhan Mantriji and other distinguished
guests for being with us this morning. Our thanks are also due to the Ministers
of Home Affairs, Parliamentary Affairs, Communications, Culture, Youth Affairs
and Sports and Information and Broadcasting and to the Leaders of Opposition in
Parliament, my fellow Presiding Officers in both the Houses, and to the Leaders
of various Parties and Groups in Parliament for all their cooperation in
organising this function today.
It is indeed a moment of pride
for all of us I would say, another milestone, in the long march of the nation.
Fifty years ago, on
24 January 1950, this majestic Hall of our Parliament was witness to a very
unique and historic occasion. It was here, on that day, that the members of the
first sovereign representative body of the people of free India, a whole
generation of our nation’s leadership, represented in the Constituent Assembly,
appended their signatures to the newly-drafted Constitution for India. Two days
later, this Constitution came into force and India thus formally declared
itself to be a Republic. That meant the culmination of a process set in motion
on the 9th of December 1946, when the Constituent Assembly first met in this
very Hall to deliberate on the task of drafting a Constitution for Free India.
The deliberations of the
Constituent Assembly are now an integral part of the history of our country.
The members of that Assembly were united in their purpose to provide for the
whole country the basic philosophy and the institutional framework which were
to guide its socio-economic and political life in the days to come. The
Constitution of India, the fundamental law of the land, was the final result of
the nearly three years’ dedicated labour of that august Assembly.
Today we have a duty and moral
obligation to pay our respectful homage to that generation of our nation’s
leadership—our real pathfinders—whose sagacity, vision, imagination and
collective wisdom had gone into the making of our Constitution and into the creation
of a new Republic. It was their lot to toil for our Freedom, making innumerable
sacrifices, and later to lay the foundations of a new Republic.
In the early years of the
Indian Republic, it was a challenge before the national leadership to come up
with a viable system of government. Through the collective efforts of the
leaders and the people, we have met that challenge effectively. Today, having
successfully gone through thirteen General Elections and numerous elections to
the State Legislatures and local bodies and having experienced fairly stable
political life for over fifty years, we can be legitimately proud of the
viability and acceptability of the
institutions created by our Constitution and about our own ability to work a
democratic system in the country.
We cannot, however, afford to
be complacent about these achievements of the past fifty years. There are still
very many serious challenges before us. We have to go a long way in achieving
the kind of socio-economic progress our Founding Fathers had visualised for the
country, in ‘wiping away the tears’ of the poor, as Mahatma Gandhi had dreamt;
in making ‘our political democracy a social democracy as well’, and promoting a
way of life which recognises liberty, equality and fraternity as the principles
of life, as Dr. B.R. Ambedkar had envisioned; and in bringing about the
‘emotional integration’ of the diverse people of our country, as Pt. Jawaharlal
Nehru had visualised for us. Striving earnestly towards the realisation of the
lofty vision of our Founding Fathers is our collective responsibility.
Today, on this historic
occasion, let us all resolve once again to live up to the ideals enshrined in
the Constitution and to be ever vigilant to guard the Republic, its
Constitution and the institutions created by it.
Thank you.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
ADDRESS BY THE PRIME MINISTER OF INDIA,
SHRI ATAL BIHARI VAJPAYEE
Respected Rashtrapatiji, Upa-Rashtrapatiji, Honourable
Speaker of the Lok Sabha, Distinguished Colleagues, Ladies and Gentlemen:
Yesterday India celebrated the
Golden Jubilee of Republic Day. Today we have gathered here to commemorate this
historic occasion. Fifty years ago, in this very Hall, our Constitution was
adopted.
That event was a culmination of
our people’s long suppressed aspiration for freedom; of an arduous, protracted
struggle for self-governance.
The journey of the creation of
our Constitution has closely paralleled the journey of our Freedom Movement in
the early half of the last century.
Members will recall the
‘Commonwealth of India Bill’, prepared by Indians in 1924, was an important
initial milestone. This was followed by the preparation of the ‘Swaraj
Constitution’. A new dimension was added to that effort with the Fundamental
Rights Declaration in 1931.
Following many ups and downs,
the Non-Party Conference prepared a comprehensive Constitutional scheme in
1944-45. Unfortunately, that was nipped in the bud. At last, the Constituent Assembly
was set up.
Thereupon, the Constitutional
Advisor to the Constituent Assembly prepared the Draft Constitution. The Draft
was subjected to a clause-by-clause consideration in Committees–headed by
Pandit Nehru, Sardar Patel, and other luminaries.
From the discussions in the
Drafting Committee headed by Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar to the deliberations–as
intense as they were intensive–in the Constituent Assembly as a whole, it was
one unbroken quest for perfection.
Indeed, it was a saga. Even as
they were being lashed by riots, killings, oppression and imprisonment, our
leaders kept at the task decade after decade.
To read the deliberations of
the Constituent Assembly and its Committees even today, even after 50 years, is
to be overwhelmed by:
* The
earnestness with which they approached the task;
* The
insight they brought to bear on each Article;
* The
farsightedness with which they anticipated the situations and problems that
were likely to arise;
* The
singular touchstone by which they judged every provision—always guided by the
interest of our country and our people;
* How,
engulfed as they were by the aftermath of Partition, by riots, by an invasion,
by the urgent task of integrating the States–how they would abstract themselves
from this tumult, gather in this very Hall, and weigh, and deliberate, and
fashion, and refashion, clause after clause.
We are beneficiaries of their
sacrifices: we would never forget that.
We are heirs to that legacy—of
exclusive, overarching devotion to the national interest; of reasoned, civil
discourse; of harmonising disparate views.
We should never forget that.
There is one great test for a
Constitution, for any system of governance. It must deliver and it must be
durable.
Our Constitution has stood this
test. And one reason it has been able to do so is that it embodies a masterly
balance: between the rights of the individual and the requirements of
collective life; between the States and the Union; between providing a robust structure and flexibility.
Our Constitution has served the
needs of both India’s diversity and her innate unity. It has strengthened
India’s democratic traditions.
But even in the mightiest fort
one has to repair the parapet from time to time, one has to clean the moat and
check the banisters. The same is true about our Constitution.
Five decades after the adoption
of the Constitution, India is faced with a new situation. The need for
stability, both at the Centre and in the States, has been felt acutely.
The people are impatient for
faster socio-economic development. The country is also faced with a pressing
challenge to quickly remove regional and social imbalances by reorienting the
development process–to benefit the poorest and the weakest.
That is the purpose for which a
Commission to review the Constitution is proposed to be set up. The basic
structure and the core ideals of our Constitution, however, will remain
inviolate.
Let us not forget that in the
end a Constitution is only as good as the ones who work the institutions which
it has set up.
Participating in the
Constituent Assembly debates, Dr. Ambedkar had said:
“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 lot. The
Constitution can provide only the organs of State such as the Legislature, the
Executive and the Judiciary. The factors on which the working of those organs
of the State depend are the people and the political parties they will set up
as their instruments to carry out their wishes and their politics.”
There is widespread
apprehension today that our institutions are not working as the Constitution
intends, that the conduct of those of us who run them is not what the proper
functioning of those institutions requires.
Let this be our resolve today:
We
shall leave institutions—above all, our Parliament and our State
Legislature—for the coming generation in a condition vastly better than the
condition in which we found them;
In
discharging our duties in them, our conduct will be such as would have done the
Founding Fathers proud.
That would be a fitting way to
repay our debt to them. That would be the one tribute worthy of them.
Thank you.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
ADDRESS* BY THE
VICE-PRESIDENT OF INDIA AND CHAIRMAN, RAJYA SABHA, SHRI KRISHAN KANT
Honourable President, Shri Narayanan, Honourable
Prime Minister, Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Honourable Speaker, Lok Sabha,
Shri Balayogi, Friends and Distinguished Guests:
The postal stamp brought out
and released today by the Union Postal Department to mark the Golden Jubilee of
Indian Republic, brings to surface a unique truth about our history, geography
and culture. The outlines of Gandhiji’s body and India’s geography merge into
each other.
Gandhi was India. Netaji Subhas
Chandra Bose called him the Father of the Nation. Gandhi is India and will
remain India. The soul of India found utterance through his very breath. As
Gandhi himself said, “I will not escape to the Himalayas leaving the people
behind. I will continue to speak even from my grave.”
We may ask why is the Republic
Day observed on 26 January, while the Constitution was signed by the members of
the Constituent Assembly earlier, on 26 November, 1949. This is because, 26
January is a milestone in the history of India’s National Movement.
On 31 December, 1929, at Lahore
Congress, in the Punjab Kesri Lala Lajpat Rai Nagar, Gandhiji had the
resolution for Poorna Swaraja passed by the Congress, in which the
demand for dominion status was given up
in favour of our resolve for marching towards full freedom. In the midnight of
the same day, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, unfurled the tri-color on the banks of
Ravi and tossed the fragrance of the resolve of ‘Poorna Swaraja’ in the
nation’s emotional atmosphere. From that year onwards the people of India
repeated the Pledge, prepared by Gandhiji, each year on 26 January, till we
attained Independence. On 26 January, 1930, in Punjab and several parts of the
country, a patriotic song was sung. It read:
When Jawaharlal Unfurled
The flag on the Ravi
bank.
“We must become free”
He proclaimed.
The people of India and
Punjab
Took this oath
collectively
“We will embrace the
gallows
With the song of the
nation on our lips
We may lose our life
But will never renege on
our promise”
The practice of not taxing
common salt traces its origin to this chapter of our National Movement.
Gandhiji had been forcefully speaking since 1908—Hind Swaraj days—against
levying tax on common salt, which was a primary necessity of the Indian
people. Gandhiji gave a call for the Salt
Satyagraha from the 12 march, 1930, and himself embarked on the Dandi
March, which shook the foundations of the British rule in India. It was a
fight of right against might in a non-violent manner. This thought was there in
the mind of Gandhiji right from 26 January, the day of pledge and he wrote to
Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru about it. Pandit Motilal Nehru likened the Dandi
March to Lord Shri Rama’s triumphant journey to Lanka. Subhash Chandra Bose
compared it with Napoleon’s Paris expedition. Bapu called it equivalent to a
pilgrimage to Badrinath and Kedarnath. All these programmes drew their
inspiration from the Pledge drafted by Gandhiji for the 26 January, which day
we have sanctified now as our Republic Day—then called Independence Day.
The Fundamental Rights, which
are the keystone of our Republic, were passed by the Karachi Congress Session
in 1931 as moved by Gandhiji.At that time twenty points were mentioned. Some of
the points mentioned therein were for India of the future and are now included
in our Constitution as the Directive Principles. At the Karachi Session of the
Congress, Gandhiji had moved the Resolution on Basic Rights, which also
included the neutrality of the state between Faiths. Our Constitution reflects
this spirit in its provisions. Poet
Nazir Banarasi has sensitively portrayed that spirit of love and goodwill among
people in his poem on Gandhiji called “The Old Gardener”....
Human
relations are far superior
To
the relations of faith;
In
life and in death, O’ friend
It
is good to be together.
We
may lose our life but, O’friend
Let
us not lose our relations.
The
flowers strung together
In
the garland
By
the Old Gardener
Should
not be allowed to break.
Let us take the pledge today
that we will never allow this garland of flowers, strung together by Gandhiji,
to be broken.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
ADDRESS BY THE PRESIDENT OF INDIA,
SHRI K.R. NARAYANAN
Honourable Vice-President of India, Honourable
Prime Minister of India, Honourable Speaker of the Lok Sabha, Honourable
Members of Parliament, Ladies and Gentlemen :
It gives me great pleasure to
be here amidst you at this solemn function to mark the Golden Jubilee
Celebrations of the birth of the Indian Republic and commencement of our
Constitution. The establishment of the sovereign, democratic Republic of India
was obviously, a significant and glorious event for India, for the freedom and
welfare of the hundreds and millions of its people. But it was also a world
event of far-reaching significance. People talk about the triumph of democracy
in the world against other forms of Government. For that triumphal outcome,
democracy in India has had a meaningful part to play not in the way of taking
part in the ideological Cold War, but in the sense of setting an example,
overpowering example to the world.
What Sir Anthony Eden, the
Prime Minister of Britain, said at the time of the emergence of Indian Republic
is relevant in this context. He said, “Of all the experiments in government,
which have been attempted since the beginning of time. I believe that the
Indian venture into parliamentary government is the most exciting. A vast
sub-continent is attempting to apply to its tens and thousands of millions a
system of free democracy..... It is a brave thing to do so. The Indian venture
is not a pale imitation of our practice at home, but a magnified and multiplied
reproduction on a scale we have never dreamt of. If it succeeds, its influence
on Asia is incalculable for good. Whatever the outcome, we must honour those
who attempt it.”
Even more meaningful was the
opinion expressed by an American Constitutional authority, Prof. Granville
Austin who wrote that, what the Indian Constituent Assembly began was “perhaps
the greatest political venture since that originated in Philadelphia in 1787.”
Mahatma Gandhi had visualized
the new Constitution of India in terms of universal values applied to the
specific and special conditions of India. As early as 1931, he had written:
“I shall strive for a Constitution which will
release India from thraldom and patronage. I shall work for an India in which
the poorest shall feel that it is their country in whose making they have an
effective voice: an India in which there is no high class or low class of
people, an India in which all communities shall live in perfect harmony. There
can be no room in such an India for the curse of untouchability. We shall be at
peace with the rest of the world neither exploiting nor exploited. All interests
not in conflict with the interests of the dumb millions will be scrupulously
respected whether foreign or indigenous. Personally, I hate the distinction
between foreign and indigenous. This is the India of my dreams for which I
shall struggle.”
At the core of our Constitution
lies the essence of this Gandhian dream in the form of social justice and
social democracy. Prof. Granville Austin has described the Indian Constitution
as, “first and foremost a social document”. He further explained that, “the
majority of India’s constitutional provisions are either directly arrived at
furthering the aim of social revolution or attempt to foster this revolution by
establishing conditions necessary for its achievement.” The very same point was
elaborated in eloquent terms by Dr. Ambedkar and Pandit Nehru. What makes our
Constitution relevant to the conditions and the problems of India and the
developing world as a whole is, in fact, the socio-economic soul of it. Its
uniqueness is that it has combined this harmoniously with the liberal rights
and freedoms as conceived by the Western democracies.
It is after deep thought and
considerable debate that the Founding Fathers adopted the philosophy and the
form of Government for India. Speaking on the draft Constitution, Dr. Ambedkar
claimed that, “It is workable, it is flexible and it is strong enough to hold
the country together both in peace time and in war time. Indeed, if I may say
so, if things go wrong under the new Constitution, the reason will not be that
we had a bad Constitution. What we will have to say is that Man is vile”. Today
when there is so much talk about revising the Constitution or even writing a
new Constitution, we have to consider whether it is the Constitution that has
failed us or whether it is we who have failed the Constitution. Dr. Rajendra
Prasad, as President of the Constituent Assembly, had pointed out, “If the
people who are elected are capable men of character and integrity, they should
be able to make the best of a defective Constitution. If they are lacking in
these, the Constitution cannot help the country”. I believe these are wise
words which we should pay heed to.
The form of Government, the
parliamentary democratic form, was chosen by the Founding Fathers after deep
thought and debate. In the Constituent Assembly, Dr. Ambedkar explained that
the Drafting Committee, in choosing the parliamentary system for India,
preferred more responsibility to more stability, a system under which the
Government will be on the anvil every day. He said that accountability was
still difficult to obtain from day to day. Thus, the parliamentary system was a
deliberate and well-thought out choice of the Constituent Assembly. It was not
chosen in imitation of the British system or because of the familiarity with it
that India had acquired during the colonial period. Gandhiji while
acknowledging our debt to Britain with regard to parliamentary Government had
observed that the roots of it were present in India in the age-old system of
the village panchayats. Dr. Ambedkar explained in the Constituent Assembly that
the Buddhist Sanghas were parliamentary type of institutions and that in
their functioning, modern parliamentary devices like resolutions, divisions,
whips, etc. were used. These elements in our heritage made it possible and easy
for India to adopt the parliamentary system of democracy. Besides, as Dr.
Ambedkar told the Constituent Assembly, this system was chosen because they
preferred more responsibility to stability. Another factor to be borne in mind
is the immensity of India, the perplexing variety and diversity of the country,
the very size of its population and the complexity of its social and
developmental problems. In such a predicament, described by one writer as one
of “a million mutinies”, there must in the body politic be a vent for
discontents and frustrations to express themselves in order to forestall and
prevent major explosions in society. The parliamentary system provides this
vent more than a system which prefers stability to responsibility and
accountability. Our recent experience of instability in Government is perhaps
no sufficient reason to discard the parliamentary system in favour of the
Presidential or any other form. In my opinion we should avoid too much rigidity
in our system of government, as in a very rigid system there is the danger of
major explosions in society taking place. The possibility and the facility of a
change in government is in itself a factor in the stability of the political
system in the long run because then the people will be more inclined to
tolerate a political situation they do not approve of or find difficult to cope
with for long. At any rate, as Dr. Rajendra Prasad said, the shortcomings in
the people entrusted with running the Government cannot be obviated by
constitutional changes or provisions.
Amendments to the Constitution
are a different matter. The Founding Fathers deliberately made the amendment
process of the Constitution easy so that the shortcomings and lacunae in the
Constitution can be rectified by the Parliament without too much difficulty.
There are other changes that can be brought about, like changes in the
electoral law or the functioning of the political parties. Whatever we may do,
and we have a right to bring about necessary changes in the political and
economic system, we should ensure that the basic philosophy behind the
Constitution and the fundamental socio-economic soul of the Constitution remain
sacrosanct. We should not throw out the baby with the bath water and like the
tragic character Othello in Shakespeare has to lament later “Like the base
Indian, threw a pearl away—Richer than all this tribe”.
Jai Hind.
* Originally delivered in Hindi