Sir, some people still feel that no safeguard should have been incorporated in the Constitution even for the interim period. I feel otherwise. I felt that it was a good thing, that it was a salutary thing, that we have prescribed a limited number of years. I tell my friends who are anxious for complete integration immediately: “Ten years represent but a fractional moment in the history of great nation.” We have not yet reached the goal of a secular democratic state. It is an ideal-I hope it is not a distant ideal. Our road to that goal may be marked by ups and downs; but if during our march to it we have given some safeguards to the minorities I feel that it is a salutary and a healthy thing in order to tide these minorities over this transition period.
