Long years ago, we made a tryst with
destiny, and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or
in full measure, but very substantially. At the stroke of the
midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A
moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old
to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed,
finds utterance. It is fitting that at this solemn moment we take the
pledge of dedication to the service of India and her people and to the still
larger cause of humanity. At the dawn of history India started on her120 unending
quest, and trackless centuries are filled with her striving and the grandeur of
her success and her failures. Through140 good and ill fortune alike, she has never lost sight of
that quest or forgotten the ideals which gave her160 strength. We
end today a period of ill fortune and India discovers herself again. The
achievement we celebrate today is but a step, an opening of opportunity, to the
greater triumphs and achievements that await us. Are we brave enough and wise
enough to grasp this opportunity and accept the challenge of the future? Freedom
and power bring responsibility. The responsibility rests upon this assembly, a
sovereign body representing the sovereign people of India. Before the birth of
freedom, we240 have endured all the pains of labour and our hearts are
heavy with the memory of this sorrow. Some of those pains continue even now. Nevertheless,
the past is over and it is the future that beckons to us now. 280 That future
is not one of ease or resting but of incessant striving so that we may
fulfil the pledges we have so often taken and the one we shall take
today. The service of India means the service320 of the
millions who suffer. It means the ending of poverty and ignorance and
disease and inequality of opportunity. The ambition of the greatest man of our
generation has been to wipe every tear from every eye. That may be beyond360 us, but as
long as there are tears and suffering, our work will not be over. So, we have
to work hard to give reality to our dreams. Those dreams are for India, but
they are also for the world, for all the nations and peoples are too closely
knit together today for anyone of them to imagine420 that it can
live apart. Peace has been said to be indivisible; so is freedom, so is
prosperity now, and so also is disaster in this one world that can no longer be
split into isolated fragments. To the people of India, whose representatives we
are, we make an appeal to join us with faith and confidence in this great480 adventure.
This is no time for petty and destructive criticism, no time for ill will or
blaming others. We have to build the noble mansion of free India where all her
children may dwell. The day appointed by destiny has come, and India stands
forth again, after long slumber and struggle, awake, vital, free and
independent. The past clings on to us still in some measure and we
have to do much before we redeem the pledges we have so560 often taken.
Yet the turning point is past, and history begins anew for us, the history which
we shall live and act and others will write about. It is a fateful moment
for us in India, for all Asia and600 for the world. A new star rises, the star of freedom in
the east, a new hope comes into being, a vision long cherished materializes.
May the star never set and that hope never be betrayed! We rejoice in that640 freedom,
even though clouds surround us, and many of our people are sorrow-stricken and
difficult problems encompass us. But freedom brings responsibilities and
burdens and we have to face them in the spirit of a free and disciplined
people. On this day our first thoughts go to the architect of this freedom, the
father of our nation, who, embodying the700 old spirit of India, held aloft the torch of freedom and
lighted up the darkness that surrounded us. We have720 often been
unworthy followers of his and have strayed from his message, but not only we
but succeeding generations will remember this message and bear the imprint in
their hearts of this great son of India, magnificent in his faith and strength
and courage and humility. We shall never allow that torch of freedom to be
blown out, however high the wind or stormy the tempest. Our next thoughts must
be of the unknown volunteers and soldiers of freedom who, 800 without
praise or reward, have served India even unto death. We think also of our
brothers and sisters who have been cut off from us by political boundaries and
who unhappily cannot share at present in the freedom that has840 come. They
are of us and will remain of us whatever may happen, and we shall be sharers in
their good and ill fortune alike. The future beckons to us. Whither do we go
and what shall be our endeavour? To bring freedom and opportunity to the common
man, to the peasants and workers of India; to fight and end poverty and
ignorance and disease; to build up a prosperous, democratic and progressive
nation, and to create social, economic and political institutions which will
ensure justice and fullness of life to every man and woman. We have hard work
ahead. There is no resting for any one of us till we redeem our pledge in full,
till we make all960 the people of India what destiny intended them to be. We
are citizens of a great country, on the verge980 of bold
advance, and we have to live up to that high standard. All of us, to whatever
religion we may belong, are equally the children of India with equal rights,
privileges and obligations. We cannot encourage communalism or
narrow-mindedness, for no nation can be great whose people are narrow in
thought or in action. To the nations and peoples of the world, we send
greetings and pledge ourselves to cooperate with them in furthering peace,
freedom and democracy. To India, our much-loved motherland, the ancient, the
eternal and the ever-new, we pay our reverent homage and we bind1080 ourselves
afresh to her service.
Hon. Chairperson, Sir, I think that it is a matter of
great misfortune for parties like mine. I do not know whether the cash of Rs.
one crore that was shown here is genuine or1120 not. But I
think it is extremely unfortunate that nothing else, this Rs. one crore is
seeking to buy the silence of parties like mine who are not being given an
opportunity to speak in a correct manner in this House. I have been a Member of
this House for 10 years, and I have never disturbed this House in these 10
years. I have sat with them and I have sat on this side, and I have1200 never
disrupted a speaker and yet here they do not have the courtesy to listen to
what I have to say. I am a Muslim, and I am an Indian. I see no distinction
between the two. I see no reason why I, as a Muslim, have to fear a deal
between India and the United States of America. This1260 is a deal
between two countries. We hope it is a deal between two countries that in the
future will1280 be two equals. Sir, the enemies of Indian Muslims are
not the Americans, and the enemies of the Indian Muslims are not deals like
this. The enemies of Indian Muslims are the same enemies that all the poor people
of India face, that is poverty and hunger, unemployment, lack of development
and the absence of a voice. What we are against is the effort being made to
crush our voice. I am not a Member of the UPA, and I do not aspire the
membership of the UPA. But, I am extremely unhappy with the way in which my
friends in the Left have taken on this self-imposed position of being the
certifiers of who is secular and who is1400 not. Until a few years ago, I was a part of the National
Democratic Alliance and I was a Minister with them. The same Left people
considered me as a political untouchable, and they considered me an outcaste
because I1440 was a part of the National Democratic Alliance. Today,
the same Left people are telling me that all secular parties must unite with
the BJP to bring down this Government. I made the mistake of standing with
them once. On the question of Gujarat, I did not resign when my conscience told
me to do so, and my conscience has still not forgiven me. I need not
make the same mistake again. You talk of
Amarnath, and you have levelled accusations regarding the Amarnath pilgrimage.
Please show me one instance where any Kashmiri has spoken against the
pilgrimage or any Kashmiri may have said that we do not want the pilgrimage. The
issue was our land. We fought for our land. We will continue to fight for our
land till our last breath. But unlike you, we are not communal. We do not
demolish mosques. We do not demolish temples either.1595
