Mr. President, Sir, I am very glad to come here to give my hearty support to the motion moved by Dr. Ambedkar that the Constitution as settled by the Assembly be passed. I consider that this Constitution is the best that could be produced in the present circumstances in India and in the world. Though there are defects no doubt, though we would have liked to have had some provisions in another form, yet, Sir, I believe that this is the best that could be done under the present circumstances. I am glad, Sir, that I have had a part in the framing of this Constitution, though it may be in a very small way. The whole country has had a part in the framing of this Constitution either by way of criticism or by way of suggestions. The Draft Constitution was placed before the country over two years ago, and everyone of us had a chance either to criticise or to send suggestions, and everyone of us here in this Constitution Assembly has had a part in the framing of this Constitution. Therefore we can say that this is a Constitution for the whole country and by the whole country. While I am speaking about this Constitution to be a satisfactory constitution under the present circumstances of India, I cannot forget the conditions that existed at the time when we first assembled here about three years ago. At that time we were under the shadow of the British Cabinet Mission. We were given the award by the Cabinet Mission that India would form into Groups. There were three Groups to be formed. Assam was to be grouped with Bengal, the North West Frontier Province, the Punjab and Sind were to form into one group, and the other provinces of India were to be formed into another group. At that time we members from Assam were afraid that this group system would be forced upon us, but everybody else there seemed to be willing to come under that group system though in spite of their wish. We were laughed at for being against the group system. We felt that it would affect the very life of the people of Assam if we were grouped with Bengal. Our reasons were known to the members of this Assembly. We were afraid that we were going to lose. In reality our fight was for life and death. We felt that we could in no circumstances be grouped with Bengal. We were in such great difficulty at that time that the Premier of Assam, Mr. GopinathBardoloi, had to approach the Working Committee which practically declined to listen to Assam request, and he had to appeal to Mahatma Gandhi and ask him to save us from this calamity, and it was Mahatma Gandhi who saved us from that situation. We must not forget those days and the members of Assam were almost ridiculed by some people that we were only thinking of Assam, and that we were not thinking of the whole of India. We had to fight for our very life. I am glad to say that it was Mahatma Gandhi who saved us from that situation, when he said to Mr. Bardoloi thus, “if you do not want to be under this group, nobody on earth can force you to be in it.” Think of what would have been the condition of India today, what would have been the Constitution we would be having today, if we had accepted that group system. India would have been a different country altogether. The powers that we possess now would have been different. My friend, Mr. Brajeshwar Prasad, has always pleaded for centralisation, but we would not have had the Constitution that we have now with quite an amount of centralisation but for the fact that we fought against that group system.. Whether our fight was good or bad, we had to fight in order to save ourselves from what we considered to be a bad way for the people of Assam and for the whole country. Sir, Assam is a frontier province. If that province had not been saved, if that province had gone into the hands of somebody who is not in favour of the whole of India, if Assam were in the hands of an adverse power, the whole of India would have gone too.
