Congress marks Draft Constitution day, hits out at RSS ‘assault’ on Ambedkar

The Congress on Tuesday evoked a moment of profound historical resonance, recalling how, exactly seventy-six years ago, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar rose in the Constituent Assembly to move the resolution for the formal adoption of the Draft Constitution — a document that would go on to shape the destiny of a newly independent nation.

The party emphasised that both Ambedkar and the Constitution he shepherded were subjected, even then, to what it described as a “ferocious and unrelenting assault” from the RSS — an assault, it asserted, that has echoed through the decades.

Congress general secretary (communications) Jairam Ramesh also revisited the poignancy of that extraordinary moment in history, noting that in his valedictory remarks before moving the resolution, Ambedkar had paid a gracious tribute to the Congress for its steadfast role in steering the Constitution-making process.

“On this day, seventy-six years ago, Dr. Ambedkar placed before the Constituent Assembly the resolution for the adoption of the Draft Constitution of India,” Ramesh wrote on X. “His closing speech on that occasion remains, without question, one of the most luminous and timeless orations delivered anywhere in the world in the twentieth century.”

Ramesh highlighted a striking portion of Ambedkar’s remarks, in which he praised the Congress for giving coherence and discipline to the monumental task before the Assembly. Ambedkar had observed:

“The task of the drafting committee would have been a very difficult one if this Constituent Assembly had been merely a motley crowd, a tessellated pavement without cement, a black stone here and a white stone there in which each member or each group was a law unto itself. There would have been nothing but chaos. This possibility of chaos was reduced to nil by the presence of the Congress Party inside the Assembly which brought into its proceedings a sense of order and discipline. It is because of the discipline of the Congress Party that the drafting committee was able to pilot the Constitution in the Assembly in the sure knowledge as to the fate of each article and each amendment. The Congress Party is, therefore, entitled to all the credit for the smooth sailing of the Draft Constitution in the Assembly.”

Ramesh stressed that the admiration expressed by Ambedkar on that historic day stands in stark contrast to what the Congress describes as the “bitter hostility” directed at him and at the Constitution by the RSS — hostility that, in the party’s view, has persisted unabated since the founding moment of the Republic.

Since 2015, 26 November has been observed nationwide as Constitution Day, or Samvidhan Diwas, marking the adoption of the Constitution by the Constituent Assembly on 26 November 1949 — a date forever engraved in the democratic memory of India.

With PTI inputs