1028 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
*** The Minister of Works, Production and Supply (Shri** Gadgil) : I heard the speech of my hon. friend Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee with great attention. I should say that it was not entirely unhelpful. He said two things which appealed to me. One was that in the matter of social reform we should carry public opinion to the largest possible extent. Secondly he said that this was not a matter of politics, this was a matter in which every citizen of this country was interested irrespective of his or her political views. Because of these two things, I am somewhat optimistic and I am certain that if we are able to create in this House an atmosphere of give and take and of compromise we will be able to put on the statute book something about which individually and collectively we may be proud of.
Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee praised the Hindu culture and called it dynamic. I share that view. It is because Hindu culture has the genius of adaptation to circumstances, it is because that it is responsive to new trends that it has survived and it has been the pride and glory of us all. Today there is a greater need for the leaders of thought to consider how we shall attempt to progress further and how we shall bring the law in line with public morality. The old ways may not be effective in the modern times and therefore it behoves us that we must also have to resort to modern methods. There is no dispute about the fact that there are certain evils; although I am a good Hindu and I will yield to none in my admiration for Hindu culture, still I am not blind to the faults which have crept in our life as a community. By adopting a Constitution with the objective of equality of status and social justice, we have taken a great responsibility. We want to inaugurate a society in which there will be perfect equality. If that is the objective, then surely that cannot be achieed by following old methods of shouting old slogans. We have established political equality by adopting the system of adult franchise. We want to secure social justice and remove as far a possible economic inequalities by erecting certain economic institutions which will secure a better standard of life for those who are down-trodden, by securing opportunities for the expansion of the personality of every citizen. And that is only possible in my humble view, by nationalising at least the means of production and securing an adequate standard of wages, controlling profits, and if at all private effort is to be given any place in the economic system by laying down that it shall be under the
*P.D., Vol. XV, Part II, 18th September 1951, pp. 2754-68.