REPUBLIC OF INDIA

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 25061, 18 December 1946, Page 7

REPUBLIC OF INDIA

Pandit Nehru’s Resolution OPPOSITION IN ASSEMBLY (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 9 p.m.) LONDON, Pec. 17. T ‘‘? andi t Nehru’s resolution on the Indian Republic is illegal, premature, disastrous, dangerous and wrong,” said the veteran Indian Liberal, Pr. R. M. Jayakar, speaking to the resumed session of the Constituent Assembly in New Delhi yesterday. Dr Jayakar appealed to the Assembly to postpone carrying the resolution. He warned that the Moslem League, by the simple method of remaining absent, could render the Assembly’s work in vain. The Assembly’s resolution would not be binding without the Moslems. “Knowing Mr Jinnah as I do, I am not inclined to take his statements seriously,” he said. ‘‘The Moslem League and the States should not be presented with a fait accompli before they have had a chance to change their minds.”

Dr. Jayakar put his proposal that the Assembly should defer decision, in the form of an amendment to Pandit Nehru’s resolution on the Republic. Dr. Jayakar proposed that the Assembly should declare that it was resolved to prepare a constitution for a “free, democratic, sovereign State,” but should postpone further consideration “with a view to securing the cooperation of the Moslem League and the Indian States, thereby intensifying its firmness and resolve.”

The Home Minister in the interim Indian Government (Dr. V. Patel) said that the British Government statement after the recent London talks contained concessions to the Moslem League in addition to those in the Cabinet Mission’s statement. “We have not accepted these concessions and this House is not going to accept any,” he said. ‘‘Pandit Nehru on his arrival from Calcutta described as amazing the report that he told a meeting in Benares that India would declare herself out of the British Empire in three days’ time,” says Reuter’s Allahabad correspondent. Pandit Nehru said: ‘The report is completely without foundation.’ ’ ’

Commenting on Pandit Nehru’s resolution calling for an independent sovereign India, Reuter’s diplomatic correspondent says that the Indian constitution when completed by the Indian Constituent Assembly must be ratified by the British Parliament. Until the constitution is ratified the administration of India remains in British hands under the Act of 1935. Nevertheless a serious view is taken of Pandit Nehru’s resolution by Indian States which have taken the view that it raised many fundamental issues which should not be considered in the absence of the States’ representatives. “The president of the Moslem League (Mr Jinnah) who is returning to India from the London talks said he was strengthened in his belief that the Moslems would achieve Pakistan,” says Reuter’s Cairo correspondent. “He is spending three days in Egypt because he is anxious that Egypt should understand what Moslem India is struggling for, and how important it is for Egypt that the Moslems suer ceed and how dangerous it would be if they failed.”