Tara Chand Bhagat
There is a wise saying that Great men are born after centuries. By virtue of his abilities and extraordinary intelligence; he was inducted as minister of the Interim Govt. for the years from 1942-46.Thereafter he was chosen as a chairman of the Drafting Committee to draft Indian Constitution. He took 2 years ,11 months and 20 days to complete this work.
Baba Sahib Dr. B.R. Ambedkar is held in high esteem by all Indians, as an intellectual luminary, a great crusader for social justice and the chief architect of our constitution. He will also be remembered as ‘a symbol of revolt against all oppressive features of Hindu society’ as aptly described by Pandit J L Nehru.
Dr Ambedkar was a super-soul who lived for others. He sacrificed his personal life comforts for the just cause of poverty, illiteracy and suffering brethren because he had seen poverty and ill-effects from a very close angle. He felt the stigma of untouchability in his childhood personally as well as with his downtrodden people. For changing the plight of the people he left no stone unturned as a chairman of the Drafting Committee of the Constitution. He inserted Article 17 for the abolition of untouchability from the modern Indian society which is still a blot on the face of progress of the country. He also made provisions for punishment to anybody whosoever practice untouchability; declaring it as an offence under law of the land. ‘Jab Tak Suraj Chand Rahega Baba Sahib Tera Naam Rahega’. The above golden words sit well in respect of his towering personality as these will ever be remembered by the people for whom he had done commendable work for not only making provisions of political reservation of seats for MPs/MLAs proportionate to their population but also made provisions for job reservation for which lakh of people having been benefitted surely might have forgotten his great sacrifice he made for amelioration of their plight and he also initiated so many welfare schemes for the labour class who do risky and dangerous jobs underground in the coal mines. He brought about great changes from 12 hours duration to 8 hours in a day and raised genuine equal wages thereof. With the benefit of political as well as job reservation the economic conditions and standard of living and social status of the downtrodden people did improved. All over the country there are now thousands of IAS Officers, Doctors, Advocates, lawyers, Scientists, DCs, DGs, judges and so on. Despite of all higher ranks they feel hitch to remember his marvelous and extraordinary work the great man had done for them. The previous Govt from time to time and the present Govt. is as well making amendments according to the demand of the time whereas the fundamental structure of laws can never be changed the Drafting Committee members’ wise suggestions as well as the farsightedness of the positive thinking of Baba Sahib Dr. B.R. Ambedkar cannot be ruled out in every aspects of the Constitution he touched in its real sense. Even the women have not been lagged behind from the men. You just see the glaring and classic examples of the present Tribal Woman President of India and former President of India Ram Nath Kovind. Had Baba Sahib not been there, the so-called downtrodden people would not have enjoyed such facilities. Baba Sahib was a crusader for Equality. He was stung by inequality-human, social and economic that made him bitter and impatient. He wanted that the depressed should rise and get better opportunities for their socio-economic uplift. He wanted to see them at par with other citizens of this country. Even more, he better sense to prevail upon those who were responsible for their backwardness.
Dr B R Ambedkar was a personality of super-human qualities. Gilding gold or painting a lily would be easier than to catch the Kaleidoscopic personality like that of Dr B R Ambedkar in the frail framework of words. A great scholar, law professor, lawyer, social reformer, political leader, statesman, economist, a religious epoch-maker are some of the facets of the galaxy of his personality. He was indeed a genius and a giant. He was a political leader in the true Indian tradition combining political acumen, with deep scholarship like Lokmanya Tilak and Veer Savarkar. The great Lokmanya used to say that if he were not plunge into politics he would have preferred to be a professor of Mathematics.
Dr. B.R. Ambedkar was an ideal student. Being an ideal Student he had passion for books. He bought as many books as he could and preserved them in his library. While he was abroad for his studies, he saved as much money as he could and spent it on buying old books. As a result of his hobby his book collection swelled. We rarely find such a huge collection with a single individual. This habit of book collection is associated with scholars in Europe. It has not become common in our country. ‘Why we call Baba Sahib as Chief Draftsman ?Because as the chief draftsman of the Constitution his contribution was unparalleled. He not only drafted the constitution in a superb manner, but ably defended the draft of the Constituent Assembly. Ambedkar’s contribution lay in so far as he expressed the ideas and directives that emanated from different agencies in a coherent fashion using his unsurpassed constitutional skill and legal acumen. The Constitution would not have been so explicit and clear, its length and bulk notwithstanding, but for his skill and industry. Further he alone could be counted upon to give the House a clear picture of the proposals contained in the draft in a way that was characteristic of the man. His speech introducing the draft, drew uniform applause and praise from members for its lucidity and symmetrical analysis.
T T Krishanmachari, a member of the Drafting Committee itself, while congratulating Dr B R Ambedkar on the enormous amount of work and enthusiasm he brought to bear on the drafting work confessed of the seven members nominated (to the Drafting Committee) one has resigned from the House and was replaced. One died and was not replaced. One was away in America and was not filled up and another person was engaged in state affairs and there was a void to that extent. One or two people were far away from Delhi and perhaps reasons of health did not permit them to attend. So it happened ultimately that the burden of the drafting this Constitution fell on Dr B R Ambedkar and I have no doubt that we are grateful to him for having achieved this task in a manner which is undoubtedly commendable. In the words of Dr M V Pylee with a rich fund of knowledge of Constitutional principles and practices in most of the leading countries and his thorough and intimate understanding of the Government of India Act of 1935.
‘Jiski Hui Hai Duniya Me Pahchaan Vo Hi Hai Hamara Samvidhan’.
