May I, Sir, at the outset refer to the Resolution itself? It has been said that this is only a Preliminary session of the Constituent Assembly and we are not entitled to go into the question of this Resolution. With due respect to those who take this view. I wish to point out that the Constituent Assembly has been described-and rightly described–as a Sovereign Body. If it is the Sovereign Body of India, it is entitled to pass this Resolution, which sets out the basic principle of the whole constitution of future India. Hon’ble Members seem to think that the Constituent Assembly is the creature of the British Cabinet Mission to India and that it is conditioned by the terms of the document known as the Cabinet Mission’s Statement of May, the 16th. I wish respectfully to point out that the Constituent Assembly is the voice of the people of India (Hear, hear) and is not the creature of the British Cabinet Mission in this country, and as the voice of India, it owes its duty to the people of India and when that voice became strong and inflexible the British-Cabinet yielded to the pressure of India to give to India, what India had been demanding for several years-the right to frame its own constitution for this Assembly. Let us not, therefore, dismiss from our minds that while we pay due respect to the wishes of the Cabinet Mission we are not bound by the conditions that they may have laid down, and that our primary duty and our sole duty is to discharge our responsibility to our masters-the people of India. If this fact is kept in view, the other questions will recede into the background.
