Our New Constitution

One nationalist daily described it as “the first of the last steps to Freedom”. Another said, “Solemn without being sepulchral, well-staged without being theatrical, the proceedings did justice to the moment”. It was in this setting that Dr Sachidananda Sinha’s words rang out, “Where there is no vision the people perish.” The people of India have had a glorious vision of freedom and the dedicated life and that is why through these dismal centuries of oppression and degradation they have survived to see the dawn of liberty. These men and women had been charged to incarnate India’s glorious vision in a Constitution, a Constitution reared for immorality, as Dr Sinha said in his Inaugural Address.

After the routine business of setting up Committees to frame rules of procedure and for other preliminary work, the House took up the matter of electing its permanent President. Dr Rajendra Prasad, the beloved leader of Bihar, man of action withal was unanimously elected President of the Constituent Assembly. All sections of the House joined in offering him their warm felicitations.

On December 13, Pandit Nehru moved his Resolution on the Aims and Objects of the Constitution of the free Indian Union. He said: “It is a Resolution and yet, it is something much more than a resolution. It is a Declaration. It is a firm resolve. It is a pledge and an undertaking and it is for all of us, I hope, a declaration”. The great Objectives Resolution has since become India’s Charter of Freedom. Pandit Nehru’s speech was characterised by the Press as “magnificent in its range of vision, and in its high idealism, at once Catholic and unbending”. This resolution was eloquently supported by Sri Purushotamdas Tandon, the grand old man of the United Provinces.

For four days the discussions were continued until the Honourable president decided that further discussion of the Objectives Resolution be postponed to the January Session. Thereafter, various important committees were set up, the most important one being the Negotiating Committee which was to confer with the States. Negotiating Committee for the purpose of fixing the distribution of seats, not exceeding 93 in number, reserved for Indian States, at one seat for every million of population; and also of determining the method by which these representatives of the States should be returned to the Constituent Assembly…