The meeting of the Constituent Assembly on 9th December, 1946 was an epoch-making event in our history.  A Constituent Assembly to determine India's future was the demand and the dream of the Indian nationalist movement.  Gandhiji saw it as "an effective substitute for civil disobedience" for the realisation of India's future.  Nehru spoke of it as the expression of "the magic of the human spirit and a nation's passion".  K.M. Munshi wrote that through it India hoped to "find its own soul to express through fundamental laws".  So when it met on December 9th it was an event as historic  and exhilarating as the great American or the French Constituent Assembly.  It reflected, as Nehru put it, "India's mighty past and mightier future", and as Dr. B.R. Ambedkar sought the objective of social equality.

The Constitution that emerged from the nearly three years of debates and deliberations in the Assembly was a unique product of India's  genius, its conditions, its compulsions and the philosophy and principles to which it was wedded through the ages past.  It embodied the liberal democracy of the parliamentary variety; it contained a powerful current of Socialist ideas; and it reflected the pervasive influence of India's traditions and especially Gandhian thoughts and ideas.  The evolution of India's constitutional, political, social and economic system has been marked by the dialectical interaction among these different but inter-related aspects of democracy. 

It is a process still ongoing and it produced the outlines of a system that is harmoniously eclectic and uniquely Indian.  It also captured in the modern form of a federal set-up the age-old concept of unity in diversity pervaded by the spirit of tolerance and co-existence.  It contained in the totality of its provisions a blend of diverse ideological provisions such as nationalism, secularism, liberalism and socialism, all anchored in the cultural and philosophical roots of our civilization.  The makers of our Constitution were beckoned by the vision of a new India standing up to its full stature, uplifting the millions of its people from the depth of poverty, disease, ignorance, and inequalities and social evils into which it had fallen.  It also envisaged, as the Objectives Resolution moved in the Assembly proclaimed that "this ancient land attains its rightful and honoured place in the world and makes its full and willing contribution to the promotion of world peace and welfare of mankind".

 It is to recall the first meeting of the Constituent Assembly that made such a momentous Charter for free India that we are gathered in this august assembly here this morning.  We are paying our grateful homage to those great men and women who fought for our freedom and independence, sacrificed so much, and thought so deeply and so far ahead, of the destiny of this nation.  Fortunately some of those among that galaxy of men and women are still with us and we offer them our sincere gratitude, our tributes and our good wishes.

On this solemn occasion we must reflect upon the meaning and significance of this golden jubilee celebrations.  Have we proved ourselves worthy of this heritage?  Have we safeguarded the Constitutional edifice so labouriously built by our founding fathers?  It has, in spite of many amendments, served the country exceedingly well.  It has certainly been an instrument in reconciling radical elements in our body-politic into a national consensus.  Many groups and parties which came into  the political arena to dissent and to demand separation have remained to co-operate and have found accommodation within its broad bosom.  In this sense the Indian Constitution reflected the traditional genius of India to find essential unity in diversities.  I am confident that this reconciling and unifying process is still active in our polity and this Parliament maintains its wonderful capacity to soften and to blunt the rough edges of even radical differences to create a consensus on issues that touch upon our basic national interests and principles.  This is the greatest tribute to the far-seeing wisdom of those who met in the Constituent Assembly on this day in 1946.

Our political scene is in a state of fragmentation to-day.  It is perhaps something like a broken mirror.  And yet the image of India can be seen in each tiny bit and it is possible to put the broken pieces together.  One does not worry on that score, therefore.  But we should worry about the deterioration of the values and the norms that the founding fathers upheld and enshrined in the Constitution.  To-day Indian politics is facing a crisis of values and a crisis of standards of behaviour.  If we turn our attention to this basic question and reflect upon possible ways in which this deterioration can be stemmed, we would have celebrated the golden jubilee of the first meeting of the Constituent Assembly in a meaningful manner.

Thank you.