DRAFT CONSTITUTION 1187
- Sardar Sochet Singh : ...Our Constitution carries in it the impress of the high-souled nobility of the President—Dr. Rajendra Prasad, the universal vision of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, the unfailing judgment and strength of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the scintillating and penetrating intellectuality of Dr. Pattabhi Sitaramayya, the erudition and labours of Dr. Ambedkar and above all, the Patriarchal blessings and divine inspiration of the Father of the Nation—our revered Mahatma Gandhi. It is my hope and prayer that such a monumental Charter of Freedom of millions of my countrymen will not fail to bring about peace, prosperity and happiness not only for this country, but for the whole world. (Cheers.)
† Mr. T. J. M. Wilson (Madras : General) : Mr. President, Sir, I also join in thanking you, the Rashtrapathi and the Chairman and members of the Drafting Committee for this Constitution....
‡...I now come to the criticism that is levelled against the Constitution that it has not provided for or conferred anything on the common man, that it has not provided for social and economic justice. That, I submit, Sir, is an erroneous contention, because it is based on an erroneous conception of the scope of the Constitution. A Constitution has a limited scope. Its main function is to provide for a machinery of Government, and this Constitution has provided for a machinery of the government, whatever its character. And whatever the privileges or rights put in certain chapters are only those rights and privileges which we have achieved so far. The Constitution embodies and gives sanction only to those rights that are achieved. That is the basic conception which I want to emphasise, because otherwise, if we had embodied certain rights in the Constitution which we have not achieved so far, that would, have given a distorted, dishonest and hypocritical picture of the country as a whole, and what is more, the Constitution would have been simply unworkable. Therefore, the Constitution has a limited purpose, and in spite of certain ugly features of the Constitution, for example the provision for the protection of property as a fundamental right, it would not and shall not prevent the country, as Mr. Santhanam has pointed out, from achieving socialism....
@Shri Dharanidhar Basu Matari (Assam : General) : Mr. President, Sir, I feel I cannot leave the Constituent Assembly to return to my
*CAD, Official Report, Vol. X, 23rd November 1949, pp. 855-856.
† Ibid., p. 856.
‡ Ibid., p. 838.
@ Ibid., p. 867.