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* Labour and Parliamentary Democracy
[ Speech delivered at the concluding session of the All India Trade Union Workers’ Study Camp held in Delhi from 8th to 17th September 1943 under the auspices of the Indian Federation of Labour. ]
I appreciate very much the kind invitation of your Secretary to come and address you this evening. I was hesitating to accept this invitation and for two reasons. In the first place I can say very little which can bind the Government. Secondly I can say very little about Trade Unionism in which you are primarily interested. I accepted the invitation because your Secretary would not take a ‘ No ’ from me. I also felt that this was probably the best opportunity I can have to speak out my thoughts on Labour organization in India which have been uppermost in my mind and which I thought may even interest those who are primarily interested in Trade Unionism.
The Government of human society has undergone some very significant changes. There was a time when the government of human society had taken the form of autocracy by Despotic Sovereigns. This was replaced after a long and bloody struggle by a system of government known as Parliamentary Democracy. It was felt that this was the last word in the frame work of government. It was believed to bring about the millennium in which every human being will have the right to liberty, property and pursuit of happiness. And there were good grounds for such high hopes. In Parliamentary Democracy there is the Legislature to express the voice of the people; there is the Executive which is subordinate to the Legislature and bound to obey the Legislature. Over and above the Legislature and the Executive there is the Judiciary to control both and keep them both within
- Speech published by the Indian Federation of Labour, 30 Faiz Bazar, Delhi. Copy spared by Shri R. T. Shinde of Bombay.