On 8th November 1948, at the Constituent Assembly Mr. Mahboob Ali Baig Sahib Bahadur [Madras Muslim] spoke as follows;
“Now, Sir, with regard to the form of Constitution, I am unable to agree with the Constitution that is embodied in the Draft Constitution. People seem to think that the Centre must be strong and that unless the Centre is very strong the Provinces will always be an impediment in the way of the Centre becoming strong that is a wrong view. If Provinces are made autonomous that does not necessarily mean that the Centre will be rendered weak, what do we bind here my view is that Provinces will be nothing but glorified District Boards. Look at Article 275, where in an emergency, all powers can be usurped by the Centre, look at Article 226, 227 and 229, the Centre can legislate for the Provinces in all matters and look at the long Union List and the Concurrent List all these clearly shows that in the hands of a Central Government, which wants to override and convert this Federal System into a Unitary System, it can be easily done – now there is a danger of this sort of Government becoming totalitarian – this is the danger in the form of Constitution that embodies in the Draft Constitution – now to add this look at the Fundamental Rights that are enunciated can they be called Fundamental Rights at all? Fundamental Rights are those which are fundamental in character, unchangeable except in extreme circumstances but what do we find here? These fundamental rights are hedged in by provisos by overriding exceptions. There is a little confusion also in that Chapter that deals with the Fundamental Rights, it is said from experience, it is known that instead of the Supreme Court deciding whether the Government cannot under certain circumstances override the Fundamental Rights, provision is made in the Draft itself and it is claimed, Sir – in the provisions for form of Constitution – it must be a flexible Constitution.”
Comment: How this great speech expounded the conditions prophetically which exist in the present day, it may be considered and respected for necessary implementation.