Dr Rajendra Prasad and Dr Ambedkar acknowledging the contribution of Sir B N Rau, Constitutional Advisor of Constituent Assembly
Dr Rajendra Prasad and Dr Ambedkar acknowledging
the contribution of Sir B N Rau, Constitutional Advisor of Constituent Assembly
VOLUME XI
Friday, the 25th November,
1949
(26 February 1887 – 30 November 1953)
The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar -" The credit that is given to me does not really belong to me. It
belongs partly to Sir B. N. Rau, the Constitutional Adviser to the
Constituent Assembly who prepared a rough draft of the Constitution for the
consideration of the Drafting Committee. A partof the credit must go to the
members of the Drafting Committee who, as I have said, have sat for 141 days
and without whose ingenuity of devise new formulae and capacity to tolerate and
to accommodate different points of view, the task of framing the Constitution
could not have come to so successful a conclusion. Much greater,
share of the credit must go to Mr. S. N. Mukherjee, the Chief
Draftsman of the Constitution. His ability to put the most intricate proposals
in the simplest and clearest legal form can rarely be equalled, nor his
capacity for hard work "
CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY OF INDIA DEBATES
(PROCEEDINGS) - VOLUME XI
Saturday, the 26th November,1949
"The method which the Constituent Assembly adopted in connection with the Constitution was first to lay down its ‘terms of reference’ as it were in the form of an Objective Resolution which was movedby Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru in as inspiring speech and which constitutes now the Preamble to our Constitution. It then proceeded to appoint a number of committees to deal with different aspects of the Constitutional problem. Dr. Ambedkar mentioned the names of these Committees. Several of these had as their Chairman either Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru or Sardar Patel to whom thus goes the credit for the fundamentals of our Constitution. I have only to add that they all worked in a businesslike manner and produced reports which were considered by the Assembly and their recommendations were adopted as the basis on which the draft of the Constitution had to be prepared. This was done by Mr. B. N. Rau, who brought to bear on his task a detailed knowledge of Constitutions of other countries and an extensive knowledge of the conditions of this country as well as his own administrative experience. The Assembly then appointed the Drafting Committee which worked on the original draft prepared by Mr. B. N. Rau and produced the Draft Constitution which was considered by the Assembly at great length at the second reading stage. As Dr. Ambedkar pointed out, there were not less than 7,635 amendments of which 2,473 amendments were moved. I am mentioning this only to show that it was not only the Members of the Drafting Committee who were giving their close attention to the Constitution, but other Members were vigilant and scrutinizing the Draft in all its details. No wonder, that we had to consider not only each article in the Draft, but
practically every sentence and sometimes, every word in every article.
It may interest honourable members to know that the public were taking great
interest in its proceedings and I have discovered that no less than 53,000visitors were
admitted to the Visitors gallery during the period when the Constitution has been under consideration. In
the result, the Draft Constitution has increased in size, and by the time it
has been passed, it has come to have 395 articles and 8 schedules, instead of
the 243 articles and 13 schedules of the original Draft of Mr. B. N. Rau.
I do not attach much importance to the
complaint which is sometimes made that it has become too bulky. If the
provisions have been well thought out,
the bulk need not disturb the equanimity of our mind."
CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY OF INDIA DEBATES
(PROCEEDINGS) - VOLUME XI
Saturday, the 26th November,1949
Mr. President-The Honorable Rajendra Prasad
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