Mr. Vice-President, Sir, we are assembled here to give final touch to the first Constitution of Free India. It is a very significant moment of our life and in this moment I cannot but recollect the past, the years of trouble and struggle that we have passed through. We have lost many comrades; the whole nation has undergone many troubles and sacrifices. When we are assembled here to give shape to our future destiny and our future constitution, I must bow down to the memories of those who have left us in the course of the long years of struggle that we have passed through,– Surendranath Banerjea, Lajpat Rai, Motilal Nehru, Deshbandhu Chittaranjan, and many others who have led us in the struggle and last by Mahatma Gandhi the Father of the Nation. And in our intimate circle, particularly in Bengal, we have also our friends who have led us through all the struggle, less known to the public, but not less devoted to the cause, not less honest and sincere in their ardent desire for freeing the country. Coming as I do from the circle of workers who have been through the struggle for more than four decades, Sir, I cannot but recollect at least the names of some – Jatindra Nath Mookerji, Swamy Prajnananda Saraswati, Surya Sen, Bhagat Singh and others. They have also served the cause, though they are not so widely known– they have also contributed to the cause.
