Sir, I do not say that this article is perfectly worded; nor can I maintain that the exceptions to parts of this article provided by clauses (2), (3), (4), (5) and (6) do not curtail the liberty and the right conceded to individual citizens in clause (1). But, as a student of politics, I have to realise that there can be no absolute right and every right has got to be abridged in some manner or other under certain circumstances, as it is possible that no right could be used absolutely and to the fullest extent that the words conveying that right indicate. It is merely a matter of compromise between two extreme views. Having got our freedom only recently, it is possible that we want all the rights that are possible for the individual to exercise, unfettered. That is one point of view. The other view is that having got our freedom, the State that has been brought into existence is an infant State which has to pass through various kinds of travail, and what we could do to ensure that the State continues to function un-impaired should be assured even if it entails an abridgment of the rights conferred by this article. I have no doubt in my mind that, though I have had to say something perhaps harsh on certain occasions in regard to what the Drafting Committee has done generally, in this article, the Drafting Committee has chosen the golden mean of providing a proper enumeration of those rights that are considered essential for the individual, and at the same time, putting such checks on them as will ensure that the State and the Constitution which we are trying to bring into being today will continue unhampered and flourish.
