1170 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
Command—a position which is much more significant and important than the narrow one he is occupying today....
*...Sir, therefore, I am now going to conclude my observations with the remark that Constitutions are only a piece of paper and they by themselves cannot enable us to achieve our ideals. It is the spirit with which the Constitutions are framed and with which they are worked that enables a nation to achieve the objective underlying its Constitution. Therefore, on this occasion, Sir, when we are going to pass our Constitution, I would like to impress upon the minds of the Members who will be appending their signatures to this document on the 26th of January, 1950, that their task is not over by simply preparing the Constitutions but their real task is ahead. It is for them to work the Constitution in such a manner as may enable the people to have real freedom, happiness and prosperity.
Now with your permission, Sir, I would like to refer to only one more matter. It is very dear to me. We have given much to Scheduled Castes. We have provided reservation for them. We have embodied in the Constitution article 335 wherein assurance has been given to them in regard to services; we have provided facility for reservation for them in services under article 16. But I hope we will have not to see the day when the Government reserves posts for them. If we really want to establish here the classless society of Mahatma Gandhi, every one of us who signs the document of the Constitution must do so with the determination rather the pledge, that he must bring the depressed classes at par with him within ten years. He will be false to himself who signs the Constitution but does not work according to its principles....
† Mr. President : We shall now continue the discussion. Mr. Kamath.
Shri H.V. Kamath (C. P. & Berar : General) : Mr. President, I rise to extend my limited and qualified support to the motion moved by Dr. Ambedkar. We, Sir, the people of India have come to the end of a long journey which is, however, the beginning of a longer, a more arduous and a more hazardous one.
‡Seth Damodar Swarup (United Provinces : General) : @[Mr. President, the Second Reading of the Draft Constitution has ended and the
*CAD, Official Report, Vol. X, 18th November 1949, p. 688.
† Ibid., 19th November 1949, p . 689.
‡ Ibid., p. 693.
@Translation of Hindustani speech.