Service Commission (IAS, IPS ) through which most important officials are recruited both for the State and the Central Government.]

There were many criticisms of the draft Constitution – some like Maulana Hasrat Mohani argued that Constitution is merely a copy of the1935 Act. It was reminded that during the freedom movement when Cabinet Mission visited India, political groups like INC demanded Universal Adult Suffrage and opposed 1935 Act. People like Damodar Swarup Seth, a socialist, pointed out that draft does not adapt from more recent Constitutions of the time like Soviet Union and ignores the centrality of villages in the Indian context. D S Seth also argued that members of the CA were not elected by adult franchise. Let us read them.

D S Seth: “Sir, our Indian Republic should have been a Union - a Union of small autonomous republics. ...The Union that would have been formed in our country in this way, would not have required so much emphasis on centralisation as our learned Dr. Ambedkar has laid. Centralisation is a good thing and is useful at times but we forget that all through his life Mahatma Gandhi emphasised the fact that too much centralisation of power makes that power totalitarian andtakes it towards fascist ideals. The onl

method of safeguarding against totalitarianism and fascism is that power should be decentralised to the greatest extent. We would have thus brought about such a centralisation of power through welding of heart as could not be matched anywhere in the world. But the natural consequence of centralising power by law will be that our country which has all along opposed Fascism - even today we claim to strongly oppose it - will gradually move towards Fascism.........”