But it is quite possible that we cannot incorporate all those things in a resolution of this character. It is the spirit of the Resolution that has got to be taken into account; it is in that light that the Constitution has got to be formulated. And in framing that Constitution we will have to see that there is a charter of fundamental rights. We are agreed upon that, but that will not be enough. Several other countries also have had their charters of fundamental rights. Yet these fundamental rights have been neglected by their own Governments. Therefore we will have to stipulate certain provisions in our own Constitution, by which it will be possible for our masses to invoke the aid of the law as against the State, as against the Government and its incumbents from time to time in order to see that these fundamental rights are actually enforced. For instance, in France they had noble ideals of equality, fraternity and liberty, and they laid it down that no Member of Parliament could possibly be put in jail while the House was in session. Yet that right was denied. Several Deputies of the French Parliament were put in jail and there was no safeguard against it. In America, before the law all the people are equal, but yet you know how depressed are the Negroes in that country. We have to prevent a repetition of that sort of thing in our country. In order to be able to do that, we must enable our own workers, our own peasants, our own ordinary masses to demand from the State necessary financial assistance to go to the Courts, the Supreme Court of the country and to seek its protection. Poor men, as you know, are not able to go to Court, and when they have to fight against the State, it is impossible for them to think of it at all. Just as you provide for a poor man’s lawyer in criminal cases, so also if you were to make a similar provision for enforcement by the ordinary masses of the fundamental rights that we formulate, then there might be some safeguard.
