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Democracy in peril?
B R Ambedkar
Last Updated IST
B R Ambedkar in a speech to the Constituent Assembly on November 25, 1949
B R Ambedkar in a speech to the Constituent Assembly on November 25, 1949

On the 26th of January 1950, we are going to enter into a life of contradictions. In politics we will have equality and in social and economic life we will have inequality.

In politics we will be recognising the principle of one man one vote and one vote one value.

In our social and economic life, we shall, by reason of our social and economic structure, continue to deny the principle of one man one value.

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How long shall we continue to live this life of contradictions?

How long shall we continue to deny equality in our social and economic life?

If we continue to deny it for long, we will do so only by putting our political democracy in peril…. (and) those who suffer from inequality will blow up the structure of political democracy which this Assembly has so laboriously built up.”

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(Published 22 September 2019, 00:50 IST)