Subhas Chandra Bose on Indian Constitution - 1928 Calcutta Congress

I shall leave that task to our constitution framers and shall content myself by referring to three cardinal points. These three points are as follows : 1. The Constitution should guarantee national sovereignty, i.e., the sovereignty of the people. What we want is government of the people, by the people and for the people. 2. The constitution should be prefaced by a ‘declaration of rights’ which will guarantee the elementary rights of citizenship. Without a ‘declaration of rights’ a constitution is not worth the paper it is written on. Repressive laws, ordinances and regulations should be unknown in a free India. 3. There should be a system of joint electorate. As a temporary arrangement, there may be reservation of seats if that is found necessary. But we should by all means insist on a joint electorate. Nationalism and separate electorates are self-contradictory. Separate electorates are wrong in principle and it is futile to attempt to build up a nation on a bad principle. We have had a bitter experience of separate electorates, and the sooner we get rid of them the better for us and for our country