720 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
The second reason was that I thought that everybody must have read my amendment; it is so simple that they must have understood what it meant. Evidently, my Honourable Friend Pandit Kunzru in a hurry has not read my new Draft.
Pandit Hirday Nath Kunzru : I have read every line of it; I only want that the Honourable Member should treat the House with some respect.
The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : The House will remember that in a very early stage in the proceedings of the Constituent Assembly, a Committee was appointed to deal with what are called Fundamental Rights. That Committee made a report that it should be recognised that the independence of the elections and the avoidance of any interference by the executive in the elections to the Legislature should be regarded as a fundamental right and provided for in the chapter dealing with Fundamental Rights. When the matter came up before the House, it was the wish of the House that while there was no objection to regard this matter as of fundamental importance, it should be provided for in some other part of the Constitution and not in the Chapter dealing with Fundamental rights. But the House affirmed without any kind of dissent that in the interests of purity and freedom of elections to the legislative bodies, it was of the utmost importance that they should be freed from any kind of interference from the executive of the day in pursuance of the decision of the House, the Drafting Committee removed this question from the category of Fundamental rights and put it in a separate part containing articles
289,290 and so on. Therefore, so far as the fundamental question is concerned that the election machinery should be outside the control of the executive government, there has been no dispute. What article
289 does is to carry out that part of the decision of the Constituent Assembly. It transfers the superintendence, direction and control of the preparation of the electoral rolls and of all elections to Parliament and the Legislatures of States to a body outside the executive to be called the Election Commission. That is the provision contained in sub-clause (1).
Sub-clause (2) says that there shall be a Chief Election Commissioner and such other Election Commissioners as the President may, from time to time appoint. There were two alternatives before the Drafting Committee, namely, either to have a permanent body consisting of four or live members of the Election Commission who would continue in office throughout without any break, or to permit the President to have an ad hoc