Whether the Congress party put forth a cliché argument of accountability
vs stability in defence of a parliamentary system, in haste, to enjoy
the plums of office is the debate at the core of this book. The author
takes the debate out of the realms of academia and into the homes of
general readers. Students of history, political science and law have
been fed on works of celebrated authors on the making of the
Constitution of India. This is only half the story told.
This
book captures the disquiet among the members of the Constituent Assembly
and outbursts by members of the dominant party that its leaders were
'settling' the Constitution behind closed doors. It examines threadbare
the conclusion of many scholars that a great amount of deliberation and
debate on merit took place in the Constituent Assembly before arriving
at a form of government best suited to India. Proposed meaningful and
far-reaching amendments made by some members, whom Ambedkar fondly
called the 'rebels,' were rejected outright, under one pretext or
another, to silence dissent.
The post-Independence political
history of India bears testimony that the apprehensions voiced by these
so-called 'rebels' played out to be true. In the Constituent Assembly,
however, their voices, pregnant with a warning, were voices in the
wilderness.
Bloomsbury's Voices in the Wilderness Critiquing Indian Constituent Assembly Debates by Anjoo Balhara Sharma
- Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing India
- Book Code: 9789388414814
- Availability: Out Of Stock
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Rs699.00