DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49382#0304
186
CHAPTER X.
it is easy to wreck the scheme, it requires great imagination,
patience, and tact upon the part of everyone concerned, the
representatives of the people, the permanent officials and the
Governor—more especially the Governor—to make it a success.
In my opinion, success can be ensured only if strict attention
is paid to the convention in regard to joint deliberation by the two
wings of the provincial administration, laid down in the report of
the Joint Select Committee on the Government of India Bill. Every
subject of importance, whether reserved or transferred, should be
discussed in the united Cabinet. One subject should not be
isolated from any other. There should be no secrets between the
two sections, official or ministerial. In other words, so far as
deliberation and discussion of all matters are concerned, the spirit
and procedure in the Provincial Government should conform as far as
possible to those prevailing in an ordinary harmonious Cabinet in
this or any other country. Duality should be practised only when
the issue has been threshed out, and, in spite of all efforts at
compromise, a divergent decision cannot be avoided. I trust that in
every Province in India, from the very beginning, this rule, namely,
unity in deliberation and duality only in decision, will prevail;
only by such a convention as this can, the traditions of collective
deliberation essential to the Cabinet form of Government, be
evolved.
It is my opinion that during the transitional period, however
long or short it may be, the officials in control of the reserved
subjects will scarcely be able to escape from the influence of the
constitutional system introduced in respect of the other subjects.
The old autocratic methods, even in regard to subjects expressly
reserved for official control, will, from the very nature of the new
situation created in India, have to be modified, and in future, all
official decisions will have to be made in a much more constitutional
spirit than has been the case hitherto. The greater the regard paid
to constitutional usages and public opinion the less will be the
friction and the more rapid the progress.
CHAPTER X.
it is easy to wreck the scheme, it requires great imagination,
patience, and tact upon the part of everyone concerned, the
representatives of the people, the permanent officials and the
Governor—more especially the Governor—to make it a success.
In my opinion, success can be ensured only if strict attention
is paid to the convention in regard to joint deliberation by the two
wings of the provincial administration, laid down in the report of
the Joint Select Committee on the Government of India Bill. Every
subject of importance, whether reserved or transferred, should be
discussed in the united Cabinet. One subject should not be
isolated from any other. There should be no secrets between the
two sections, official or ministerial. In other words, so far as
deliberation and discussion of all matters are concerned, the spirit
and procedure in the Provincial Government should conform as far as
possible to those prevailing in an ordinary harmonious Cabinet in
this or any other country. Duality should be practised only when
the issue has been threshed out, and, in spite of all efforts at
compromise, a divergent decision cannot be avoided. I trust that in
every Province in India, from the very beginning, this rule, namely,
unity in deliberation and duality only in decision, will prevail;
only by such a convention as this can, the traditions of collective
deliberation essential to the Cabinet form of Government, be
evolved.
It is my opinion that during the transitional period, however
long or short it may be, the officials in control of the reserved
subjects will scarcely be able to escape from the influence of the
constitutional system introduced in respect of the other subjects.
The old autocratic methods, even in regard to subjects expressly
reserved for official control, will, from the very nature of the new
situation created in India, have to be modified, and in future, all
official decisions will have to be made in a much more constitutional
spirit than has been the case hitherto. The greater the regard paid
to constitutional usages and public opinion the less will be the
friction and the more rapid the progress.