Coming now to the Constitution, I just say at the outset that it is a compromise and has all the defects of a compromise. It is a compromise between men of various views, both conservative and radical, inside the Congress Party. In the transitional period from slavery of a thousand years into newly won freedom, it was probably natural that we should go through this present stage which is reflected in this Constitution. I cannot call it the constitution of the free India of my dreams. I can, therefore, support the motion of Dr.Ambedkar for its adoption only in this spirit. I am convinced that very soon when the period of transition is over, representatives of the Indian people, elected by a conscious electorate on the basis of adult suffrage, will recast this Constitution and frame a constitution which will realise our dreams. I would have wished that my amendment for an automatic revision of the Constitution by simple majority once at the end of ten years from the commencement of the Constitution had been accepted by the House under the limitation of the prevailing circumstances, I am sure, that a better Constitution could not have been made. For this achievement, therefore, I congratulate all those responsible for it, particularly the members of those committees, who under the chairmanship of our leaders evolved the principles of the Constitution in the reports submitted by them of the union Powers Committee, the Provincial Constitution Committee, the Minorities Committee and numerous other Committees. The principles enunciated by these committees were accepted by the Assembly during the First Reading and the Drafting Committee then put them into legal shape. I would have very much wished that this Draft Constitution had been discussed by the House by going into the Committee stage, so that all amendments could have been discussed threadbare and decision could have been taken by a majority of the whole House and not only by the majority of the Congress Party.
