“We must hold fast to constitutional methods of achieving our social and economic objectives. It means that we must abandon the method of civil disobedience, non-co-operation and satyagraha. When there was no way left for constitutional methods for achieving economic and social objectives, there was some justification for unconstitutional methods for achieving economic and social objectives. But where constitutional methods are open there can be no justification for these unconstitutional methods.

 

These methods are nothing but the Grammar of Anarchy and the sooner they are abandoned the better for us.” -- Dr B R Ambedkar, in the Constituent Assembly, on November 25, 1949. THIS statement of one of the great sons of India, ‘Bharat Ratna’ Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, seems like something from a distant past. Distant? Yes! For, a look at the social, economic, and political realities of today makes it seem distant. The scenario degenerated over the decades by people of all ilk and all social and political leanings, motivates, rather demotivates, one to draw a conclusion that people have misused all the great men and women from the Indian history to find solace in cementing own socio-political identity. Also, they have abused the prophetic wisdom of these great sons and daughters of the country to further own narratives. In the process, sadly, people have collectively paved their roads to future with the tiles of hypocrisy.

 

What is it if not hypocrisy? People proclaiming to be the defenders of the Constitution of India, are seen speaking the language supporting the separatist elements. People claiming to have given deserving recognition to Dr Ambedkar, Chairman of the Drafting Committee of the Constitution of India, are seen encouraging hero worship. Those claiming to be political heirs of the rich legacy of Dr Ambedkar, are seen engaging in attempt to portray Dr Ambedkar as ‘radical’ and distort his ardent belief in constitutional methods to achieve economic and social objectives. All of them put together are also the ones who chant the name of Mahatma Gandhi but conveniently forget his teachings of sanctity of methods deployed to achieve socio-political goals. The sadder part is that they consider everyone trying to remind them of the core beliefs of the great men and women of India as ‘naive or too idealistic’. But, one must not forget that Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar and a long list of eminent personalities of India attained greatness on the strength of the efforts they put in to achieve what they dreamed of as an ideal world. His endeavours were fuelled by idealism.

 

His thought was deeply rooted in the ancient Indian wisdom, whichever part of that they chose to follow. Dr Ambedkar was a staunch Indian, and this was reflected in the original draft of the Constitution of India. In his speech delivered 75 years ago, while making the concluding remarks in the Constituent Assembly on the Constitution, he had stated in no uncertain terms that the people and the political parties constituted the factors on which depended the working of the organs of the State as provided by the Constitution. How prophetic he was! One can see things operating in sharp contrast to his wisdom from what is popularly referred to as ‘Grammar of Anarchy’ speech. For instance, he had flagged condemnation of the Constitution coming from the Communist Party and the Socialist Party. While the Communists believed in ‘dictatorship’ of the proletariat and condemned the Constitution because it was based upon parliamentary democracy, the Socialists wanted the Constitution to give them freedom to nationalise or socialise all private property without payment of compensation, and also absolute Fundamental Rights so that if they failed to come to power ‘they would have the unfreterred freedom not merely to criticise but also to overthrow the State’. Years later, the word ‘Socialist’ was included in the Preamble to the Constitution by the powers of that time. There are other areas, too, of his speech violated in the past 75 years. He had warned that if the political parties placed creed above country, India’s ‘independence will be put in jeopardy a second time and probably be lost forever’. The situation today is visible to everyone, whether someone accepts it or not because of own political leanings. Dr Ambedkar had called the castes as ‘anti-national’ because they brought about ‘separation in social life’ and also generated ‘jealously and antipathy’. Today, the virus of casteism is threatening the very existence of India as a nation. Some politicians are consistently, and cantankerously, cementing the casteist sentiments for their petty gains. It is sad that the people of India, that is, Bharat, need to be reminded of holding fast to the Constitutional methods of achieving their social and economic objectives. Many Indians, including those claiming to be the ardent followers of ‘Bharat Ratna’ Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar’s thoughts, have forgotten what he had said 75 years ago. He had cautioned against the use of unconstitutional methods, hero worship in politics, and had called castes as anti-national. Unfortunately, today, people only preach Dr Ambedkar’s thought but practice what he described as ‘Grammar of Anarchy’. The younger generation of Indians must understand this and read his speech. For, in them lies the hope of India rising as a Constitutionalist, democratic, united nation!