When he addressed the Constituent Assembly for the last time on November 26, 1949, before adopting the resolution to pass the Constitution decided by the Assembly, the Speaker of the Assembly, Dr. Rajendra Prasad, said that he personally had only ” There are two regrets – one, that no qualifications were prescribed for the legislators, and two, that the Assembly could not draft the Constitution in any Indian language.
Prasad told the House, “It is inconsistent that we should insist on higher qualifications for those who administer or help administer the law, but none for those who make it, except those who are elected ” However, he expressed satisfaction over universal adult suffrage, saying that as a person with roots in a village, he had full confidence in the intelligence of Indian villagers.
Prasad said that the future generation will evaluate the Constitution of India, but also said that even a flawed Constitution can be made to work well if the people in power are of good character and integrity. If these qualities are lacking then even a good constitution will not be able to benefit any country. , “After all, the Constitution is a lifeless thing, like a machine. It gets life because of the people who control and operate it,” he said.
Prasad highlighted the process through which the Constitution was drafted, gave interesting details and thanked the members, officers and the entire staff, from peons to the next level, for making it happen.
He told the Constituent Assembly that in the process of drafting the Constitution, an expenditure of Rs 63,96,729 was incurred in the last three years till November 22, 1949.
Prasad said that there was tremendous enthusiasm among the public for this exercise which would give a constitution to a country whose population is more than that of the whole of Europe except Russia.
The Assembly held its first session on December 9, 1946, attended by 207 members. Since then about 53,000 visitors were allowed entry into the galleries of the Assembly to witness the making of the Constitution.
Prasad pointed out that the constitutional scheme had completely integrated the princely states and there would be no differences between the princely states and the provinces under British rule. He said that the assembly brought with it many kings, the efforts made by him along with Sardar Patel ensured that the princely states merged into the Indian Union within three years.
creation of the constitution
Prasad then summarized the process by which the Constitution was drafted. The first step was to adopt its terms of reference through an objective resolution, which was introduced by Jawaharlal Nehru. This was the resolution that Preface “The Constitution evolves,” he said.
Once the Preamble was enacted, Prasad said, “It (the Assembly) proceeded to appoint a number of committees to deal with various aspects of the constitutional problem…Many of these were chaired by either Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru or Sardar Patel To whom credit goes to the fundamental principles of our Constitution.”
These committees prepared reports which were discussed by the Assembly and “their recommendations were adopted on the basis of which the Constitution was to be drafted”, Prasad said. This draft was prepared by constitutional expert BN Rau.
Prasad said, “The Assembly then appointed a Drafting Committee (chaired by BR Ambedkar) which worked on the original draft prepared by BN Rau and drafted the Constitution, which the Assembly considered in considerable detail in the second reading stage. Thought.”
“As Dr. Ambedkar pointed out, there were at least 7635 amendments, of which 2473 amendments were moved… It was not only the members of the Drafting Committee who were paying their full attention to the Constitution, but other members were also alert and Were examining the draft. In all its details… As a result, the size of the draft Constitution has increased, and by the time it is passed, it has 395 articles and 8 schedules instead of 243 articles. And 13 Schedules of the original draft of Shri BN Rau,” he said.
Prasad congratulated the members of the drafting committee for their loyalty and enthusiasm, and said that Ambedkar had done a great job despite his poor health.