On 6th November 1948, Shri Arun Chandra Guha [West Bengal General] at the Constituent Assembly spoke in respect of Motion Re Draft Constitution, as follows;
“Now to the Draft Constitution. I am afraid the Draft Constitution has gone beyond the term. I am afraid whole Constitution has been laid before us has gone beyond the main principles laid down by the Constituent Assembly. In the whole Draft Constitution we see no trace of Congress outlook, no trace of Gandhian Social and Political outlook. The learned Dr. Ambedkar in his long and learned speech as found no occasion to refer to Gandhiji or to the Congress. It is not surprising, because I feel whole Constitution lacks in Congress ideal and Congress ideology particular. When we are going to frame the Constitution is not only a political structure but we are going to frame; it is not only an administrative machinery that we are going to set up; it is a machinery for the social and economic feature of the nation.
I feel as far the economic side, the Draft Constitution is almost silent. It is rather anxious to safeguard the sanctity of property; it is rather anxious to safeguard rights of those who have got something and it is silent about those who are dispossessed and who have got nothing. While there is much about the sanctity of property and the inviolability of property, Things such as right to work, right to means of livelihood and right to leisure etc. have been left out and these things should have been effectively incorporated in the Constitution —
Then Sir, Dr. Ambedkar has passed a remark about the Village Unit. We have been in the Congress for years, we have been taught to think of Village Panchayat as the feature basis of administrative machinery. The Gandhian and the Congress outlook has been that the future Constitution of India would be a pyramidal structure and its basis would be Village Panchayat. According to Dr. Ambedkar Villages have been a ruination of India and villages have been the den of ignorance. If that has been the case that is due to us who have been living in the towns, who have been shining under the foreign bureaucracy and foreign tour. Our Villages have been carved and our Villages have been strangled deliberately by the Foreign Government and the town people have played a willing tool in this ignoble task resuscitating of the villages, I think, should be the first task of the future of the India. I have told you, Sir, that who have been taught according to the Gandhian outlook and the Congress outlook that the future Constitution of India would be pyramidal structure based on Village Panchayat.”
Comment: The speech was more relevant this year i.e. 2020 as it was in 1948.