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Journalism of Courage
The Delhi Legislative Assembly is hosting a two-day All India Speakers’ Conference to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Vithalbhai Patel, older brother of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, becoming the President of the Central Legislative Assembly, Parliament’s equivalent under British rule.
Vithalbhai Patel, a freedom fighter, was the first Indian to come to this post.
In his two tenures as Central Legislative Assembly president, Vithalbhai Patel put in place practices and institutions still followed by his successors in independent India, Parliament’s Speakers.
The conference was inaugurated by Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday (August 24), who said on the occasion that Vitthalbhai Patel laid the foundation for India’s legislative traditions, strengthening today’s democracy.
Here is a brief account of Vithalbhai Patel’s remarkable life, and of his role in shaping the office of the Speaker.
Vithalbhai Patel was born on September 27, 1873, the third of five brothers. He studied law in England, and came back to Bombay to practise. His more famous brother would follow in his footsteps soon.
Vithalbhai was elected to the Bombay Legislative Council in 1912 and to the Imperial Legislative Council in 1918. In 1924, he was elected member of the Central Legislative Assembly from Bombay city, and rose to become its first Indian president on August 22, 1925.
Vithalbhai was among those senior Congress leaders who opposed Mahatma Gandhi’s decision to suspend the Non-Cooperation Movement against the British after the Chauri Chaura incident. These leaders, including Subhas Chandra Bose, Motilal Nehru, Chittaranjan Das, among others, founded the Swaraj Party in 1923. However, they worked closely with the Congress for the cause of India’s freedom.
Throughout his two tenures, Vithalbhai both insisted upon and upheld the highest standard of dignity for the office of the president (today’s Speaker).
In one example, he challenged the custom where during the Viceroy’s annual address to the Assembly, the president would rise from his seat when the Viceroy arrived. Vithalbhai contended that in the Assembly, the president was paramount, and thus he would conduct the Viceroy to the dias, sit in his chair, and then call upon the Viceroy to address the members. Amit Shah referred to this on Sunday, saying, “The result was that the English government had to agree to this.”
Among Vithalbhai’s lasting contributions was that Parliament’s security was in the hands of the Speaker — the ward and watch system, which continued till 2024, when the CISF stepped into that role. On April 8, 1929, Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt threw two bombs and pamphlets in the Assembly. After this, the government wanted to take over the Assembly’s security, but Vithalbhai remained firm, and eventually, the responsibility rested with the president, with the aid of other officials.
The other institution that Vithalbhai set up was an independent Parliament Secretariat, with the officials in it reporting to none but the president. This was to ensure that the staff advising and helping the president were serving no other boss, and hence would be fully independent.
In 1973, the centenary year of Vithalbhai’s birth anniversary, the Lok Sabha Secretariat published a souvenir in his memory. GS Dhillon, then Lok Sabha speaker, wrote in it, “Patel was a person who never lost sight of the fundamentals. An independent Speaker, he was clear in his mind, must have an independent Secretariat to advise him. One of his first tasks as President was to press for such a secretariat…Progress was slow but Patel was not the man to give up.”
Finally, during Vithalbhai’s second term, “on the 22nd September 1928, Pandit Motilal Nehru moved the motion (seconded by another illustrious leader Lala Lajpat Rai) for a separate Legislative Assembly Department. And on January 10, 1929, within a period of a few months was created a separate self-contained Department in the portfolio of the Governor-General but under the de facto control of the President,” Dhillon wrote.
Vithalbhai died in Geneva on October 22, 1933, of ill-health. In the years just before that, he had been collaborating with Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. Both leaders felt that Gandhiji’s methods were not enough, and awareness about India’s cause should be raised in foreign nations. When Vithalbhai died, his will bequeathed a significant portion of his money to Bose’s political activities. However, his family challenged the will, and the court eventually ruled in their favour.
