Hyderabad: As we celebrate 70 years of Indian Constitution, let us recollect the contributions made by Sir Benegal Narsing Rau. His contributions as the Constitutional Advisor to the Constituent Assembly were priceless.
Fondly known as BN Rau, he is the key bureaucrat of that era. Rau played a key role in drafting the Government of India Act, 1935.
India is known for its federal structure and Rau is the one who foresaw this and introduced it before independence. He formulated the federal structure and gave importance for sharing of executive powers between the centre and state.
Rau proposed the implementation of Upper House and Lower House at both centre and states. He is the reason behind establishing Public Service Commissions, the Supreme Court for dealing with legal issues and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to deal with financial management of the country.
In 1935, as soon as the Government of India Act announced, then key politicians like Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Subhash Chandra Bose and Madan Mohan Malaviya opposed Rau's move to introduce the federal system.
However, after taking charge as the Constitutional Advisor to the Constituent Assembly in 1946, Rau explained the necessity of federal system in India as people of different religion, creed and culture live here.
He toured America, Canada, Ireland and Britain to understand the constitution in those countries before drafting the constitution. Rau prepared the initial draft in February 1948.
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