Now, Sir, before actually speaking in support of my amendment, I hope I will be excused to say something by way of introduction to the proposed amendment. The Draft Constitution has, in my humble opinion, failed, and failed rather miserably to deal properly with the question of the economic rights of the people. This article 24, which is now under discussion, I am sure, is soon going to be a Magna Charta in the hands of the capitalists of India. While we were under foreign rule, a few years back, we had been hoping fondly, not against hope, that in a free India the people of this country will be able to frame a really peoples’ constitution which will as a whole be the Magna Charta of the toiling masses. But, alas, Sir, two years of Swadeshi rule have not only sadly disillusioned us, but all our hopes of better living and a prosperous India have been dashed to the ground. The standard of living of the masses is slowly going down and the index of prices of necessaries of life is daily rising. It is not possible for one to say as to where and when this rise in prices and the worsening of the economic condition of the masses will end. The plight of the middle class-people, Sir, is indescribably piteous. All this is happening in the face of the famous and historical Quit India Resolution in which the toiling masses of this country were solemnly promised Ram Rajya, i.e., that the power, political and economic, snatched from the foreigners will be vested in their hands. It is true that the toiling masses are even now attempted to be lulled into sleep by some tempting promises and sweet words. Even now if I correctly remember, Sir, the Honourable Prime Minister of India who has just moved this article 24, while speaking on the Objectives Resolution had declared in the most clear and emphatic terms ‘that he stood for socialism and that India would go to the making of a Socialist Republic. If a Socialist Republic has actually to be established in this country, or as the President of the India National Congress promises every now and then, that there will be a classless society in this country during the next five years, then a Socialist Republic or a classless society are not to be dropped on this land of ours from Heaven like Manna. If they do mean anything, it requires some spade-work and clearing of way by dealing properly with the question of the economic rights of the people.
