Did Dr. Ambedkar ever say that if he got the opportunity, then he would burn the Constitution?

It is not that Dr. Ambedkar wanted to burn the constitution. His words are taken out of context.

My friends tell me that I made the Constitution. But I am quite prepared to say that I shall be the first person to burn it out. I do not want it. It does not suit anybody. But whatever that may be, if our people want to carry on, they must remember that there are majorities and there are minorities; and they simply cannot ignore the minorities by saying: ‘Oh, no, to recognize you is to harm democracy. – Dr. B. R. Ambedkar

This is what Dr. Ambedkar said on 19th March 1955 to the question of Dr. Anup Singh, when the discussion on Fourth Amendment Bill was going on.

Dr. Singh asked, “Last time when you spoke, you said that you would burn the Constitution.”

Dr. Ambedkar:

Do you want a reply to that? I would give it to you right here. My friend says that the last time when I spoke, I said that I wanted to burn the Constitution. Well, in a hurry I did not explain the reason. Now that my friend has given me the opportunity, I think I shall give the reason. The reason is this: We built a temple for god to come in and reside, but before the god could be installed, if the devil had taken possession of it, what else could we do except destroy the temple? We did not intend that it should be occupied by the Asuras. We intended it to be occupied by the Devas. That’s the reason why I said I would rather like to burn it.

We built a temple for god to come in and reside, but before the god could be installed, if the devil had taken possession of it, what else could we do except destroy the temple?

Here, “the temple” implies “the constitution” and “the devil” implies the corrupt leaders, the “protectors of the Indian constitution”, who are supposed to be duty-bound adherents to it.

What Dr. Ambedkar meant by these words (& also said) was that, it is irrelevant how good or bad the constitution is drafted if the people in charge are of low moral standards (implying that the then current people in government were not fit to run the country or protect it's constitution).

Most of the people have been fooled into believing that Dr. Ambedkar really wanted to burn the Constitution. The brainwashers distort reality either by not giving the full facts or taking it out of context to mislead.

Author : Shekhar Bodhakar

Also Read:

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Was Indira Gandhi far more intelligent and educated than Dr. B. R. Ambedkar for having added secularism to the constitution?

Why is Dr. Bhim Rao Ambedkar regarded as the father of the Constitution? What were other constituent assembly members doing then?