২

ডিসেম্বরের 9 তারিখ, 1946, বি আর আম্বেদকরজী একটা বক্তব্য রাখেন আসন্ন গণতন্ত্রের আনুষ্ঠানিক সূচনার উপর। তা পড়তে পড়তে বেশ কিছু জায়গায় চমকে উঠতে হল। মনে হল প্রতিটা কথা কি সাংঘাতিক রকম প্রাসঙ্গিক আজও। অতবড় ভাষণটা তো আর দেওয়া যায় না, তার কিছু কিছু অংশ, যা আমাকে ভাবালো, তা তুলে দিলাম আম্বেদকরজীর ভাষাতেই।

1) সংবিধান সংবিধানের উপর নির্ভরশীল নয়, নির্ভরশীল তার প্রয়োগবিধি আর প্রয়োগকর্তার উপরঃ

"The working of a Constitution does not depend wholly upon the nature of the Constitution. The Constitution can provide only the organs of State such as the 

Legislature, the Executive and the Judiciary. The factors on which the working of those organs of the State depends are the people and the political parties they will set up as their instruments to carry out their wishes and their politics. Who can say how the people of India and their purposes or will they prefer revolutionary methods of achieving them? If they adopt the revolutionary methods, however good the Constitution may be, it requires no prophet to say that it will fail. It is, therefore, futile to pass any judgement upon the Constitution without reference to the 

part which the people and their parties are likely to play."

2) ভারতের বারবার পরাধীন হওয়ার জন্য বাইরের শত্রু শুধু তো নয়, ঘরের শত্রুও কি কম ছিল? ভবিষ্যতে কি তবে দেশের নানান জাতপাত, উঁচুনীচু শ্রেণী বিভাজনই ঘরের শত্রু হয়ে দাঁড়াবে?

"What perturbs me greatly is the fact -that not only India has once before lost her independence, but -she lost it by the infidelity and treachery of some of her own people. In the invasion of Sind by Mahommed-Bin-Kasim, the military commanders of King Dahar accepted bribes from the agents of Mahommed-Bin-Kasim and refused to fight on the side of their King. It was Jaichand who invited Mahommed Gohri to invade 'India and fight against Prithvi Raj and promised him the help of himself and the Solanki Kings. When Shivaji was fighting for the liberation of Hindus, the other Maratha noblemen and the Rajput Kings were fighting the battle on the side of Moghul Emperors. When the British were trying to destroy the Sikh Rulers, Gulab Singh, their principal commander sat silent and did not help to save the Sikh Kingdom. In 1857, when a large part of India had declared a war of independence against the British, the Sikhs stood and watched the event as silent spectators. 

Will history repeat itself? It is this thought which fills me with anxiety. This anxiety is deepened by the realization of the fact that in addition to our old enemies in the form of castes and creeds .we are going to have many political parties with diverse and opposing political creeds. Will Indian place the country above their creed or will they place creed above country? I do not know. But this much is certain that if the parties place creed above country, our independence will be put in jeopardy a second time and probably be lost for ever. This eventuality we must all resolutely guard against. We must be determined to defend our independence with the last drop of our blood."

3) আর অসাংবিধানিক আন্দোলন নয়, কারণ সংবিধান এখন আমাদের হাতে।

"If we wish to maintain democracy not merely in form, but also in fact, what must we do? The first thing in my judgement we must do is to hold fast to constitutional methods of achieving our social and economic objectives. It means we must abandon the bloody methods of revolution. It means that we must abandon the method of civil disobedience, non-

cooperation and satyagraha. When there was no way left for constitutional methods for achieving economic and social objectives, there was a great deal of justification for unconstitutional methods. 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."

4) ভারতের ব্যক্তিপূজার প্রতি ঝোঁক কি ভবিষ্যতে প্রচ্ছন্ন একনায়কতন্ত্র তৈরি করবে?

"For in India, Bhakti or what may be called the path of devotion or hero-worship, plays a part in its politics unequalled in magnitude by the part it plays in the politics of any other country in the world. Bhakti in religion may be a road to the salvation of the soul. But in politics, Bhakti or hero- worship is a sure road to degradation and to eventual dictatorship."

5) ভারতের সব চাইতে বড় শত্রু তার সামাজিক জাতপাতের বিচার, অস্পৃশ্যতা। গণতন্ত্রের মূল তিনটি পরিকাঠামো - স্বাধীনতা, সাম্য আর ভাতৃত্ব। এর মধ্যে শেষ দুটি, অর্থাৎ সাম্য আর ভাতৃত্ববোধের বড় বাধা এই সামাজিক শতাব্দীপালিত বিভাজন। তা কি দূরীভূত হবে?

"What does social democracy mean? It means a way of life which recognizes liberty, equality and fraternity as the principles of life. These principles of liberty, equality and fraternity as the principles of life. These principles of liberty, equality and fraternity are not to be treated as separate items in a trinity. They form a union of trinity in the sense that to divorce one from the other is to defeat the very purpose of democracy. Liberty cannot be divorced from equality, equality cannot be divorced from liberty. Nor can liberty and equality be divorced from fraternity. Without equality, liberty would produce the supremacy of the few over the many. Without fraternity, liberty would produce the supremacy of the few over the many. Equality without liberty would kill individual initiative. Without fraternity, liberty and equality could not become a natural course of things."