Who was the President of the Constituent Assembly?

Correct — B, Rajendra Prasad. The Constituent Assembly met for the first time on 9 December 1946 with Sachchidananda Sinha, its oldest member, in the chair as provisional President. Two days later, on 11 December 1946, the Assembly elected Rajendra Prasad its permanent President, and he presided over the whole of the constitution-making that followed, signing the Constitution as adopted on 26 November 1949. He went on to become the first President of the Republic in January 1950. The three other names in the option list were all central to the Assembly's work but none of them held its chair.

• (a)B. R. Ambedkar — Ambedkar chaired the Drafting Committee, which is a different office. He led the seven-member body that produced the draft, and he piloted it through the Assembly — but the Assembly's own President was Rajendra Prasad.
• (c)Alladi Krishnaswami Aiyar — He was one of the most influential members of the Drafting Committee and a leading constitutional lawyer of the Assembly, but he presided over nothing.
• (d)Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan — He was a member of the Assembly and made one of its most quoted speeches, and he later became the first Vice-President and the second President of India. He never chaired the Assembly.

Four roles in the Constituent Assembly are examined and confused in rotation. Sachchidananda Sinha was provisional President for the first two days; Rajendra Prasad was the elected President throughout; B. R. Ambedkar chaired the Drafting Committee; and B. N. Rau, a civil servant, was the Assembly's Constitutional Adviser and prepared the initial draft on which the Drafting Committee worked. S. N. Mukherjee, the Chief Draftsman, is the fifth name that appears in harder versions of this question.

The Assembly was constituted under the Cabinet Mission Plan of 1946 and worked for two years, eleven months and eighteen days across eleven sessions. It adopted the Constitution on 26 November 1949 and it came into force on 26 January 1950. Keeping the President of the Assembly apart from the Chairman of the Drafting Committee is the whole of this item, and it is worth noting how the two are described in public memory — Ambedkar is called the architect of the Constitution, which is a description of his drafting role, not of a presiding office.

• The Constituent Assembly first met on 9 December 1946 with Sachchidananda Sinha as provisional President.
• Rajendra Prasad was elected its permanent President on 11 December 1946.
• B. R. Ambedkar chaired the seven-member Drafting Committee.
• B. N. Rau was the Constitutional Adviser and prepared the initial draft; S. N. Mukherjee was Chief Draftsman.
• The Constitution was adopted on 26 November 1949 and came into force on 26 January 1950.

• Answering Ambedkar, whose drafting role is better known than the presiding office.
• Confusing Sachchidananda Sinha's two days as provisional President with the elected presidency.
• Mixing up the Assembly's President with the first President of India, which in this case happen to be the same man but for different reasons.

Asked as a plain who-held-which-office item, using three names from the same Assembly whose roles are more famous than the office being asked about.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Who chaired the Drafting Committee of the Constituent Assembly?

  • (a)Rajendra Prasad
  • (b)B. R. Ambedkar
  • (c)B. N. Rau
  • (d)K. M. Munshi

  Answer(b) B. R. Ambedkar — the seven-member Drafting Committee, distinct from the Assembly's presidency.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  On which date was the Constitution of India adopted by the Constituent Assembly?

  • (a)26 November 1949
  • (b)26 January 1950
  • (c)15 August 1947
  • (d)9 December 1946

  Answer(a) 26 November 1949 — it came into force two months later, on 26 January 1950.