Prabhakaran

The constituent assembly had spent 2 years 11 months and 17 days to prepare the most sacred book of modern India. Letâ??s take a look at how the Constitution was created. Though it came into force only in 1950, the demand for a Constituent Assembly was made back in 1934. M.N. Roy, a Communist party leader, was the first to moot the idea. This was then taken up by the Congress party and the British government accepted the demand in 1940. The August offer, as it was known, allowed Indians to draft their Constitution. In 1946, elections to the Constituent Assembly were held and, of the 296 seats, the Congress won 208 and the Muslim League 73. The Constituent Assembly for undivided India met for the first time on December 9, 1946. However, relations between the Muslim League and the Congress deteriorated and the former demanded a separate assembly for Muslims. By this time, events were moving rapidly towards independence. After independence, the members who represented the areas that had gone to Pakistan had to be replaced and new elections had to be held. What the Constituent Assembly hoped to achieve was expressed by Jawarharlal Nehru: â??The first task of this Assembly is to free India through a new constitution, to feed the starving people, and to give every Indian the fullest opportunity to develop himself according to his capacity.â?? A Drafting Committee was constituted on August 29, 1947, with Dr. B. R. Ambedkar as Chairman to prepare a Draft Constitution. This committee finally finished their work on November 26, 1949. The date is therefore known as Constitution or National Law Day. The process was complete when the members signed the document â?? two copies in English and Hindi â?? on January 24, 1950. The final document drew upon the constitutions of many other countries. Hereâ??s a quick overview of a few borrowed ideas: From Britain, the idea of parliamentary form of government and idea of single citizenship; from the U.S., the concept of fundamental rights and the governmentâ??s federal structure but the division of power between the central and state governments was taken from the Canadian constitution. From the French was borrowed the idea of liberty, equality and fraternity and, from the Soviet Union, the ideas of fundamental duties and the Planning Commission. While the Constitution is written down, it is not a rigid set of rules or framework. The provisions were stated generally so that they could be adapted to changing times and situations. Take for instance the Right to Life under Article 21. From â??No person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to procedure established by lawâ??, it has gone on to include Right to speedy trial; Right to water; Right to livelihood; Right to health and Right to education. In his book Making of Indiaâ??s Constitution, a well-known Supreme Court judge Justice H.R. Khanna wrote that the people are the trustees and custodians of the values in the Constitution. â??A constitution is not a parchment of paper; it is a way of life. Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty and, in the final analysis, its only keepers are the people.â??