The date was 27 August 1947 when India had become independent and the Constituent Assembly was meeting. On that day, Sardar Patel placed a proposal in the Constituent Assembly and that proposal decided that there would be no separate electoral system for elections in India. That is, there will be no separate constituency for Muslims in India, but it was not so easy to reach this proposal and then get it passed.
Because when India was under British rule, in the year 1909, through the Indian Council Act, the British had made arrangements for a separate constituency for Muslims. Then in 1916, under the Lucknow Agreement, Congress also agreed that one-third seats would be reserved for Muslims in the elections. Then in 1935, Muslim reservation in elections was also maintained under the Charter Act.
After independence, Congress leaders understood how dangerous reservation on the basis of religion could be. In such a situation, when the first meeting of the advisory committee was held, Tajmul Hussain and many other members gave notice that the reservation for minorities should be abolished, then the chairman of the drafting committee, Baba Saheb Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar, refused to abolish the Muslim reservation. Had done it. In such a situation, Sardar Patel had said that “There is no restriction on the advisory committee.” She may reconsider this matter. There should be a consensus among the representatives of the minority community in this regard.
Meanwhile, the Advisory Committee formed a sub-committee on 24 February 1948, whose job was to report on the minority problems of East Punjab and West Bengal. Apart from Sardar Patel, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Dr. Rajendra Prasad, KM Munshi and BR Ambedkar were also included in this subcommittee.
On May 11, 1949, the issue of Muslim reservation again came up before the advisory committee, but Tajammul Hussain was not present that day, so Begum Ajaz Rasool had to speak.
Senior journalist Ram Bahadur Rai, while describing this incident in detail in his book Bharatiya Samvidhan Ankahi Kahani, writes that Sardar Patel looked towards Kanhaiya Lal Manik Lal Munshi sitting next to Ejaz Rasool. When both of them met, KM Munshi said to Begum Rasool that Sardar wants you to speak.
Begum Rasool got courage from KM Munshi’s words, she stood up and said that “reservation should be abolished”, then on 11 May 1949, HC Mukherjee proposed that there was no need of reservation for minorities.
Voting was also held on this and the proposal was passed by 58 votes against three that there will be no provision for Muslim reservation in the Constitution of India. Then, in the Constitution of the country which came into force on 26 January 1950, minorities were kept out of all types of reservations.
2024-05-03 13:09:23