C.

Cabinet Mission Plan

The Constituent Assembly:

(i)The Constituent Assembly worked in a systematic, open and consensual manner.

(ii)First some basic principles were decided and agreed upon. Then a Drafting Committee chaired by Dr. B.R. Ambedkar prepared a draft constitution for discussion.

(iii)Several rounds of thorough discussion took place on the Draft Constitution, clause by clause. More than two thousand amendments were considered.

(iv)The members deliberated for 114 days spread over three years. Every document presented and every word spoken in the Constituent Assembly has been recorded and preserved. These are called ‘Constituent Assembly Debates’.

(v)When printed, these debates are 12 bulky volumes! These debates provide the rationale behind every provision of the Constitution. These are used to interpret the meaning of the Constitution.

A constitution does the following things:

(i)It generates a degree of trust and coordination that is necessary for different kind of people to live
together.

(ii)It specifies how the government will be constituted, who will have power to take which decisions;

(iii)It lays down limits on the powers of the government and tells us what the rights of the citizens are; and

(iv)It expresses the aspirations of the people about creating a good society.

The significance are:

(i)Values that inspired and guided the freedom struggle are embedded in the Preamble of the Indian Constitution. 

(ii)They guide all the articles of the Indian Constitution. 

(iii)The Preamble of the Constitution reads like a poem on democracy. It contains the philosophy on which the entire Constitution has been built.

(iv)It provides a standard to examine and evaluate any law and action of government, to find out whether it is good or bad.

(v)It is the soul of the Indian Constitution.