The Reminiscences of Zafrulla Khan — Page 107
107 REMINISCENCES OF SIR MUHAMMAD ZAFRULLA KHAN INTERVIEW - JUNE 16, 1962 Question : I thought today, Sir, we might ask you some questions about the 1937 elections. Khan : The 1937 elections were the provincial elections under the Government of India Act of 1936. The elections returned Congress majorities in seven out of the 11 provinces. Before the Congress consented to take office in those provinces, they raised the question of the special powers that were reserved to the Governors in the Government of India Act of 1935, by virtue of which the governors could intervene and, if necessary, overrule their Cabinets, for the preservation of law and order, for protecting the interests of the minorities, and for safeguarding the rights and privileges of the services. The Congress leadership wanted a clarification from the authorities as to how those powers would be exercised. They were anxious to get an assurance that these powers would not be used for interference with the day to day provincial administration. A certain amount of negotiations took place and in the end, Congress was given the assurance they had asked for and they agreed to take office in the provinces in which they had secured majorities. The result of these assurances was that in practice the special powers reserved to the governors were eliminated. A Governor, in view of the assurance given, might have felt that if he attempted to intervene, and failing persuasion, he overruled the Cabinet by exercising any of the special powers vested in him, it would be made an immediate issue and his ministry would complain that he had misused his powers in order to interfere with the ordinary administration of the province. It would be very difficult, in any specific case, to say whether a ministry's action was a legitimate exercise of normal administrative powers or whether it trenched upon the safeguards and assurances that were contained in the Act with regard to minorities and services. Thus, the Congress secured for itself a position in which they could go ahead, disregarding altogether the safeguards contained in the Act designed as a brake upon the powers of a majority, to ride roughshod over the interests of the minorities and the services. One matter created serious trouble: That was that the Congress refused, in the provinces in which they were in the majority, to include Muslim ministers in the Cabinets unless they were or became members