Who made this statement: "Because of circumstances that have now come into being that the States have become, where it is federal…

Question

Who made this statement: "Because of circumstances that have now come into being that the States have become, where it is federal or unitary, welfare states from being Police States and the ultimate responsibility as for the economic well-being of the country has become the paramount responsibility of the Centre".

1. A. Rajendra Prasad
2. B. Jawaharlal Nehru
3. C. Bhimrao Ambedkar
4. D. T.T.Krishnamachari (Correct answer)

Correct Answer

Option D — T.T.Krishnamachari

Detailed Solution & Explanation

The correct answer is T.T. Krishnamachari.

Key Points

• The statement — that circumstances have turned the states from Police States into Welfare States, and that ultimate responsibility for the country's economic well-being has become the paramount responsibility of the Centre — was made by T.T. Krishnamachari.
• The argument was made in defence of the Constitution's centralising financial design during the Constituent Assembly debates: if the Union bears the final responsibility for the economy, it must hold the corresponding fiscal powers.

Additional Information

• Tiruvellore Thattai Krishnamachari was a member of the Drafting Committee, joining in 1948 in place of D.P. Khaitan, who had died. He later served as Union Finance Minister and as Commerce and Industry Minister.
• His best-known remark in the Assembly was about the burden carried by the Drafting Committee's chairman: of its seven members, one had resigned, one had died, one was in America, one was engaged in state affairs, and "the burden of drafting this Constitution has fallen on Dr Ambedkar".
• The centralising thrust he was defending is visible throughout the Constitution — a longer Union List, residuary powers with Parliament (Article 248), Union supremacy over the Concurrent List (Article 254), emergency provisions that convert the federal structure into a unitary one, an All India Services cadre serving both levels, a single citizenship and a single integrated judiciary.
• The Constitution never uses the word "federation". Article 1 describes India as a "Union of States" — a phrase Dr Ambedkar explained as indicating that the Union is not the result of an agreement among the states, and that no state has the right to secede.
• K.C. Wheare described India as "quasi-federal", and Granville Austin as "cooperative federalism" — the standard characterisations to quote alongside this debate.