Chief Justice Of India Dr DY Chandrachud Releases Anurag Bhaskar's Book On Dr BR Ambedkar

On 14 April (birth anniversary of Dr Ambedkar), CJI DY Chandrachud released the book titled “The Foresighted Ambedkar: Ideas That Shaped Indian Constitutional Discourse”, authored by Anurag Bhaskar, and published by Penguin. The book is now available in bookstores and on Amazon.

Anurag Bhaskar is a legal scholar who pursued LLM from Harvard Law School and BA LLB (Hons) from Dr Ram Manohar Lohiya National Law University, Lucknow. For his research, the Bluestone Rising Scholar Award was conferred on him by Brandeis University, USA. He has also held fellowships at Harvard Law School and the University of Oxford. Bhaskar is currently working as a deputy registrar at the Supreme Court of India.

The website of Penguin describes the book as follows:

“In The Foresighted Ambedkar, Anurag Bhaskar argues that India's Constitution was drafted not just between 1946 and 1950 but over the course of four decades. Dr Ambedkar was the only person to have been involved at all the stages related to the drafting of the Indian constitutional document since 1919. These stages bear the imprint of his contribution and role. This book seeks to focus on Dr Ambedkar's influence on the Indian constitutional discourse from 1919, when he entered public life, until the actual writing of the Constitution and even beyond. Covering the different constitutional moments as and when they happened, it highlights Dr Ambedkar's role in those moments. A seminal work of intellectual and constitutional history, this volume demonstrates why Dr Ambedkar is rightly called the 'Father of the Indian Constitution'.”

The book release was also attended by Justice Sundaresh Menon, Chief Justice of Singapore, Justice David Goddard, Judge of the Court of Appeal of New Zealand, several judges of the Supreme Court of India, Chief Justices, and several judges from all High Courts in India.

After the book's release, CJI Chandrachud and other guests walked to Dr Ambedkar's statue, situated on the lawns of the Supreme Court, to pay their homage. Referring to Dr Ambedkar, the Chief Justice said, “His message today remains as valid today as it was when he was drafting the Indian Constitution.”