Mr. President, Sir, the Report of the Union Powers Committee that forms the subject matter of discussion today is a very important document as it vitally affects the privileges and the rights of the people living in the States as well as in the provinces. It is important, Sir, because it seems to me that only on a proper and appropriate allocation of the powers between the Centre on the one hand and the provinces and the States on the other that the future good government of the country will depend. It is necessary, therefore, that we should so allocate or distribute the powers as to retain effective control in the Centre, while not denuding the people living in the States and the provinces of their powers. You know, Sir, that in a federation there is a recognised division of loyalties and interests and in order to blend them a strong Centre is very necessary, but you also know, Sir, that too strong a Centre would result in the Centre becoming very oppressive and would result in the crushing, so to speak, of the liberties and privileges of the people living in the component units. Therefore we must be very circumspect and very careful in the matter of the distribution of the powers. We must be careful to see that the distribution is so made as to affect a happy compromise between strength on the one side and consideration of the rights and privileges of the people living in the States and in the provinces on the other side. I have gone through the lists which are appended to this Report very carefully and I have also heard with rapt attention the speech made so lucidly by Mr. Gopalaswami Ayyangar, He has discussed threadbare the different aspects of the question. He has placed before us all the aspects of the question, all the pros and cons of the issue. He says, “Now that partition is a settled fact, we are unanimously of the view that it would be injurious to the interests of the country to provide for a weak central authority which would be incapable of ensuring peace, of co-ordinating vital matters of common concern and of speaking effectively for the whole country in the international sphere. At the same time, we are quite clear in our minds that there art, many matters in which authority must lie solely with the Units and that to frame a constitution on the basis of a unitary State would be a retrograde step, both politically and administratively. We have accordingly come to the conclusion that the soundest framework for our constitution is a federation, with a strong Centre”. Sir, with due deference to Mr. Gopalaswami Ayyangar, I do not think that this report is a very satisfactory one inasmuch as it wants to assign to the Provinces and the States a very secondary part. After 150 years of turmoil, after 150 years of sacrifice undergone by the people of India, referred to so very lucidly by Pandit Jawaharlalji the other day, we have uprooted British imperialism. Let not that imperialism be perpetuated in another form. Why should the Centre be jealous of the component parts? After all, the people living in the States and Provinces are part of the whole. Their activities are counterparts to the activities of the Centre so that there should not be this suspicion. I submit, therefore, that the Centre should not arrogate to itself all the powers. Coming as I do from the State of Mysore, I feel that this report is very unsatisfactory. You know, Sir, that we have acceded to the Indian Dominion on three important questions, Foreign Affairs, Communications and Defence. These are the matters on which we have made a treaty and acceded to the Dominion. So far as the Federal Legislative List is concerned, you have tried to take away the powers from us. For example, you want to interfere with our trade. You want to retain for yourself trade and commerce with foreign countries. You want power to requisition land for defence purposes. All this savours of some force. So far as this report is concerned, you Sir, yesterday observed that we should deal with only salient points.
