10 June, 1890: Birth Anniversary of Gopinath Bardoloi

Freedom Fighter, Politician and the first Chief Minister of Assam

A NOTE ON Assam’s Stand vis a vis British Government Statement of 6^th December, 1946.

                                                                                                                  (Extract)

To,

            The President,

            Indian National Congress,

            New Delhi.                   

            New Delhi, the 9^th December, 1946.

Dear Friend,

            On account of the recent statement of the British Cabinet with reference to Sections and Groupings…we the members of the Constituent Assembly from Assam elected according to Congress directions deem it our duty to make the following observations…Assam shall be forced to enter Group ‘C’, that her constitution would be framed by the majority of the members sitting in the section and that there would be no room for revision of the Constitution as framed by the Section…On the 10^th June a Deputation from the Congress Committee…stressed on the evils of the Cabinet Mission’s proposal, in almost identical terms….President Maulana Azad and the members of the Working Committee were pleased to assure Sjt. Bardoloi…that the case of Assam would receive proper consideration at the hands of the W.C….he requested the W.C. to give him a draft of a resolution to be moved in the Assam Legislative Assembly determining what attitude the elected members of the Constituent Assembly should adopt regarding the whole question…a resolution drafted by a Member of the W.C. was sent to President Maulana Azad for approval…After going through the draft Maulana Sahib replied to the above letter ... “You should therefore bring a motion in the light of the above decision, the wordings of which may be formulated by the Board mentioned above (Selection Board of Constituent Assembly members).”Accordingly the Board adopted the draft resolution with slight modification and that resolution was adopted in the House without any division….That the representatives elected by the Assam Assembly alone shall frame and settle the Constitution of Assam…the said representative shall not take part in any meeting or meetings of any section or Group of provinces for the purpose of settling the Constitution for the province of Assam….the said representatives shall resist all or any attempt made to set up a Group Constitution for the settlement of questions relating to any subject or subjects in which the Province of Assam is interested or concerned  being dealt withby any such group of Provinces on the basis of majority of votes.” …. On 22^nd July, 1946 Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru who became the President of the Congress… added “That a Section may definitely decide not to form any Group and yet may continue as a Section to consider Provincial Constitution…. In reply to this it was pointed out to him by Sjt. Bardoloi that all that meant in the resolution was that  provinces should be allowed to function as a unit in the Sections and that the Section should not be made to consist of so many members from the provinces. He pointed out that the provincial constitution must be framed by the province in question alone…the Working Committee in their sitting both in July and August had made it clear… provinces would frame their own constitution and shall be free to go to Group Constitution or not as they liked….H.M.G have now given a completely different interpretation from what the Congress Working Committee gave and on the basis of which they held out assurances to the people of Assam.…if H.M.G’s proposals are to be accepted both our constitution as well as Grouping will be determined by the majority of the Constituent Assembly Members…we shall be thrown entirely at the mercy of the Muslim League both for our provincial constitution as well as our Groupings…. The members of the Constituent Assembly from Assam, can have but only one decision…we refuse to go to that Section …. We feel that our position is being rendered still worse by the attitude of the Working Committee in agreeing to accept the decision of the Federal Court in…matters of controversy between the Congress and the Muslim League…. We cannot in these circumstances think there is any scope for the decision of the Federal Court. Moreover, the mandate of the Assam Assembly leaves us no room for acting in any other way than to refuse to go to Section.

We shall be grateful to be informed about the decision of the Working Committee.

                                                                                                          Yours sincerely

                                                                                    

                                                                           Sd/- Gopinath Bordalai and others

     Source: Gopinath Bardoloi Papers, MSS, NMML