voting rights . Even the limited electorate did not directly elect all the members of the Constituent Assembly . The elected members of the State Assemblies formed themselves into an electoral college and elected certain members from their states . A few of the members of the Constituent Assembly were even nominated . Thus the Constituent Assembly did not have a single characteristic of a Constituent Assembly of a FREE PEOPLE .
As Marx had said of the German Diet in 1852 , it was the ‘ bastered child ’ brought to light by the incestuous intercourse with the old colonial Constitution : and ‘ long since had sacrificed its virginity and young as it looked ’, ‘ it was already turning grey hair and experienced in all the artifices of prating and pseudo diplomatic prostitution ’. It was an assembly of Liberal attorneys and democratic professors of British education and culture . It presented as the very essence of Indian intellect dominated by patriotism . In reality , it was nothing but a stage in which old and chicken hearted political characters exhibited their importance of thought as well as of action . After two years of debates and deliberations , which were not even any theoretical value , this great Assembly of incompetence produced the lengthiest constitution in the world , ‘ strikingly similar to the 1935 Constitution ’.( Asian Drama - Page 266 ).
Is it any wonder that this so-called Constitution of the independent India is strikingly similar to the 1935 Constitution ? When the ruling class had decided to maintain the statusquo in the economic and social condition of the country , without any sudden change in the economic structure , without taking any step which would injure the existing structure — there could not be any fundamentally new construction other than the one that was already in existence . The mass of the people were deceived by the ruling class and its agents in to believing that this Constitution is sacrosanct . But the bourgeoisie knows what it is adopting as the Constitution of India .
16
Thus the Constitution was nothing but a superstructure built on the readymade foundation carefully and laboriously laid by imperialism . The Constitution was meant to legalise the existing legal and administrative network with all its Acts and Rules ; it was meant to strengthen the existing social and economic order . Thus the Constitution finalised the betrayal of the Indian people by the bourgeoisie , represented by the so called national leadership . With the enactment of the Constitution , the Indian bourgeoisie finally took power in India to rule without serious prejudice to its structural integrity , constituted as it was at that time .
Ambedkar , who piloted the Constitution as Chairman of the Drafting Committee was a little more excited in his reply to the debate in the third reading of the Constitution , in the Constituent Assembly of India on 25 th November 1949 . He said , — ‘ on 26 th January 1950 , we are going to enter into a life of contradictions . In politics , we will be recognizing the principle of one man one vote , and one vote one value . In our social and economic life , we shall by reason of our social and economic structure , continue to deny the principle of one man one value ’...... We must remove this contradiction at the earliest possible moment or else those who suffer from inequality will blow up the structure of political democracy which this Assembly has so laboriously built up .” ( Ibid , page- 34 to 47 ).
So , this was the actual essence of our Constitution .
“ Economic Policy of the New Government :
On April 6 , 1948 , the Government ’ s resolution on economic policy was published to further clear the apprehension of foreign financial interests . The resolution laid down that , except for munitions , railway , electricity , and atomic energy , ‘ the rest of the industrial field will normally be open to private enterprises ’ — that is in favor of existing monopolies , including the imperialist finance capital . As a further clarification of the Government ’ s policy and to clear whatever lurking fears the imperialist capital might have , the explanatory Memorandum published along with the Resolution on Economic Policy , categorically states : ‘ the Resolution contemplates full freedom for foreign capital and enterprise in Indian Industry while at the same time assuring that it should be regulated in the National interest ’. This part of the Resolution reveals the Indian Government ’ s recognition of the need for foreign aid , both in management and technical training and investment and of the wisdom of welcoming foreign capital and skill to supplement Indian enterprise .
‘ Full freedom for foreign capital and enterprise in Indian industry ’ became the declared policy of the Government of India , headed by the most respected ‘ socialist ’ Nehru – ‘ the jewel of India ’.” ( Ibid , page - 43 , 44 ). “ Compromise with the Princely States :
In the face of unprecedented people ’ s upsurge in the Indian princely States against the feudal order , the Indian bourgeoisie quickened its pace of compromise with the Indian princes to save them from the people ’ s wrath . By 1950 , most of the former princely territories had been integrated without serious prejudice to the existing social and economic privileges of the princes . As Myrdal in his ‘ Asian Drama ’ succinctly puts it – ‘ diplomacy cajolery and legalized bribery ’ were used to prejudice the Indian princes to join the Indian Union , with generous financial settlements , like emoluments through privy purses , exemption from innumerable taxes , with the retention of their titles , and many other privileges - all in contradiction to the spirit of the Democratic revolution . Added to all these privileges , the Government of India found lucrative assignments to quite a number of these princes in diplomatic service , Governorship of the States , membership of the delegation to United Nations , etc . Considerate treatment of these relics of feudal
Class Struggle