Question

How did the Constitution makers try to make Parliament and Assemblies more representative and more democratic.​

Answer 1

Answer:

we celebrate the day when our Constitution came into effect, many misconceptions about how the Constituent Assembly chose the parliamentary system for India remain.

Most Indians believe the parliamentary form of government was the unanimous choice of the Constituent Assembly, but facts prove otherwise: our founding leaders Jawaharlal Nehru, B.R. Ambedkar and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel were not on the same page.

The choice of the parliamentary system was one political party’s decision. It was taken in the summer of 1946, during a Congress party meeting, and then shepherded through the Constitution-making process as a party directive. The Congress had formed an expert committee under the chairmanship of Nehru in preparation for the Constituent Assembly, and in its meeting of 15 August this small panel decided that independent India would have a British-type government. (The Framing of India’s Constitution by B.S. Rao, Universal Law Publishing, Delhi, 2006, Vol. 1, P 331)

At the time, neither Ambedkar nor Patel was in favour of a strictly parliamentary system. For that matter, neither was Mahatma Gandhi nor Pakistan’s founder and All India Muslim League leader Muhammad Ali Jinnah, although they were not involved in the framing of our Constitution.

As the Constitution-making progressed, both Ambedkar and Patel would bring their own ideas for a different type of government to the Constituent Assembly. But they were either turned down or ignored. As for Jinnah, he had already declared in 1939 his ‘irrevocable opposition’ to the parliamentary form. (The Framing of India’s Constitution by B.S. Rao, Vol. 5, P 28) And Gandhi had said, “If India copies England, it is my firm conviction that she will be ruined.” (Gandhi and Constitution Making in India by D.K. Chatterjee, Associated Publishing House, 1984, P71)

When the Constituent Assembly began its work at the end of 1946, the Congress Expert Committee decisions became the recommendations of the Union Constitution Committee, also chaired by Nehru. But the Provincial Constitution Committee, headed by Patel, came up with a different plan. (Constituent Assembly Debates (CAD), 27 June 1947)