“There shall be a President of India.” On the Committee which presented this report to the Assembly last year, not merely Dr. Ambedkar but along with him some of the wise men of the Drafting Committee–the majority of the wise men–were on the Committee. I think only Mr. Madhava Rao and Mr. Khaitan were not on the Union Constitution Committee. The others were all present in the Committee and they have not appended a minute or a note of dissent to the Report of the Constitution Committee presented by the Committee to the Assembly. I want to know from Dr. Ambedkar why this word ‘Rashtrapati’ has been deleted from the article which appears in the Draft Constitution today. Is it because, Sir, that we have now developed–latterly developed, cultivated a dislike–a new-fangled dislike of some Indian or Hindi words and try to avoid them as far as possible in the English draft of the Constitution? I have not in mind the word ‘Pradesh’; but certainly we have adopted words like ‘beggar’ and ‘panchayat’. I wonder how many Britishers, how many Anglo-Americans know the words ‘beggar’ and ‘panchayat’–except those Britishers who have served in India. I therefore want to know the reason which actuated Dr. Ambedkar and the wise men of the Drafting Committee to delete this word ‘Rashtrapati’ from this article as it has been presented to the Assembly. Is the reason this, that title or that name or designation, that appellation should be reserved exclusively for the Congress President. President of the Congress Organization which functions today, and perhaps will function even after this new Constitution has come into force? The argument may be advanced that the word ‘Rashtrapati’ is not much in vogue, has not been in vogue in India for many years. I do not know whether Dr. Ambedkar has been very familiar or acquainted with this title or word ‘Rashtrapati’ during the last twenty-five years. During the last two generations, however, the word ‘Rashtrapati’ has gained common currency, has been in vogue to describe the person who is the Head of the Congress Organization, meaning the Head of the Nation. Or is it because that the wise men of the Drafting Committee when they shook themselves free of certain shackles–because when they were members of the Constitution Committee, Pandit Nehru was there who had been Rashtrapati himself but when they shook themselves free from the shackles of other members like Nehru, they got together as seven members of the Drafting Committee, did they think that this word ‘Rashtrapati’ is not very pleasant or well-sounding or is it because in their heart of hearts they did not have really much regard for this word apart from the person who used to be the Rashtrapati in former times?
