432 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
My Friend, Mr. Lari and the Maulana will therefore see that there has been from their point of view a greater improvement than what was found in the original article. Certainly there has been no deterioration in the position at all as a result of the change made by the Drafting Committee.
Coming to the other question, namely, whether this Constitution should not embody expressly in so many terms, that I he right to receive education in the mother tongue is a Fundamental Right: Let me say one thing and that is that I do not think that there can be any dispute between reasonably-minded people that if primary education is to be of any service and is to be a reality it will have to be given in the mother tongue of the child. Otherwise primary education would be valueless and meaningless. There is no dispute, I am sure, about it and in saying that I do not think it necessary for me to obtain the authority of the Government to which I belong. It is such a universally accepted proposition and it is so reasonable that there cannot be any dispute on the principle of it at all. The question is whether we should incorporate it in the law or in the Constitution. I must frankly say that I find some difficulty in putting this matter into a specific article of the Constitution. It is true, as my Honourable Friend Pandit Kunzru observed, that the difficulty that might be felt in administering such a Fundamental Right is to some extent mitigated or obviated by the amendment moved by my Friend Mr. Karimuddin viz., that such a principle should become operative in the case a substantial number of such students were available. I would like to draw the attention of my friend Mr. Karimuddin that his amendment does not really solve the difficulty, which stands in the way of his accepting the principle. First, who is to determine what is a substantial number ? Let me give an illustration. Supposing the matter is to be left to the Executive, as it must be, and the Executive made a regulation that unless there were 49 per cent of such children seeking education in a primary school, then and then only it will be regarded as a substantial number. Will that satisfy him if such an authority was left with the Executive ? Then supposing you make this matter a justiciable matter, is it undoubtedly would be when you are introducing it as a Fundamental Right and no Fundamental Right is fundamental unless it is justiciable, is it proper, is it desirable that the question whether in any particular school a