[Letter to N G Ranga]

Summary

This untitled letter from M. R. Masani to Professor N. G. Ranga, dated 18 November 1970, forwards extracts from the Central Parliamentary Board meeting held in Delhi on 7 November concerning business before Parliament’s winter session. Masani notes that the National Headquarters may already have sent the material from Bombay and encloses the minutes for Ranga’s attention.

The attached minutes record the Board’s positions on several parliamentary and constitutional questions. The Board advised the Swatantra Party group not to support a routine no-confidence motion, while permitting members to support it at the vote; supported a Preventive Detention Act for West Bengal as a special response to Naxalite violence but rejected such legislation for the country as a whole; opposed impeachment proceedings against the President; and rejected constitutional amendments concerning gubernatorial powers in favour of conventions or instruments of instruction leaving confidence in a Chief Minister to the Assembly. It also instructed the parliamentary group to oppose amendments to the Payment of Bonus Act and unanimously adopted a resolution responding to the Government’s rejection of the Chanda Committee’s recommendation to convert All India Radio and television into autonomous corporations.

Key points

• Masani’s letter, dated 18 November 1970, forwards Central Parliamentary Board minutes to Professor N. G. Ranga.
• The Board regarded routine no-confidence motions as empty and counter-productive, while allowing members discretion at the vote.
• It supported preventive detention legislation for West Bengal as a special measure against Naxalite activity, but opposed extending the Act nationwide.
• It advised the Swatantra Party group not to support impeachment proceedings against the President.
• It opposed constitutional amendments prescribing statutory limits on Governors’ powers and favoured conventions or formal instructions instead.
• The Board decided that the parliamentary group should oppose amendments to the Payment of Bonus Act.
• It unanimously adopted a resolution concerning the Government’s rejection of the Chanda Committee’s proposal for autonomous corporations for All India Radio and television.