486 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
democracy? Do you see any trace of it there now? It has all gone. It has all vanished. They are probably under the dominance or surveillence of other countries. There is no democracy left. Take some of the most recent examples. Syria had got a democratic government. After a few years there was a military rebellion and the Commander-in-Chief of Syria became the ruler of Syria and democracy vanished in air. Take another example. What happened in Egypt ? There too, they had been a democratic government beginning right from 1922 for 30 years. In one night Faruk had to leave and Nagib became the dictator of Egypt and he abolished the Constitution.
With all these examples before us, I think we ought to be very cautious and very considerate regarding our own future. You ought to consider whether we ought not to take some very positive steps in order to remove some of the stones and the boulders which are lying in our path in order to make our democracy safe. If, as a result of these few observations I have made, I have effected in you a consciousness that this is a problem on which we cannot afford to sleep, I think I would thank myself for the work I have done. Now, ladies and gentlemen, I do not wish to detain you long and I thank for the kind attention with which you have listened to what I have said.” [1]
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1 : Booklet Printed by D. D. Gangal, Lokasangraha Press, 624 Sadashiv Peth, Poona 2 and Published by V. B. Gogate. LL. B., Pleader, Hon. Secretary Poona District Law Library, Poona 5.