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Jinnah`s Nine Points
Jinnah`s Nine Points were devised keeping in mind communal issues, Vice Presidentship and interest of minorities.

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MohammadAliJinnah=Extreme oppositions from the Muslim League led to the formation of the Interim Government. It comprised only of the Congress. As soon as the Interim Government was initiated, the Viceroy, Lord Wavell, started discussions with the Muslim League to bring in its representatives and suggested them to join it. However, there was a deadlock between the Congress and the Muslim League on this issue. Dialogues with Mahatma Gandhi, Nehru and the Viceroy were consistently failing as Jinnah felt that the Viceroy had committed mistake in forming the present one-party Government with Congress. Jinnah devised the Nine Points and put forward their demands to the Viceroy.

The Viceroy, on the other hand, continued his efforts to bring about a settlement with Nehru and Jinnah. He informed Jinnah on 2 October that he had failed to secure any concession from the Congress over the Nationalist Muslim issue. He emphasized at the same time that it was in the obvious interest of the Muslim League to come into the Government at once and unconditionally. On the distribution of portfolios and other issues the Viceroy would see that the League got fair treatment. Jinnah did not enter into any argument on the Nationalist Muslim issue, but said that if he was to have any chance of satisfying his Working Committee he must show them some success on other points on issues like the safeguard on major communal issues, vice-presidentship and the question of minorities. Finally, he agreed to summon his Working Committee as soon as possible and undertook to send the Viceroy a note setting out the points on which he required elucidation.

Jinnah`s Nine Points included the following issues:

•The total number of the members of the Executive Council to be fourteen.


•Six nominees of the Congress will include one Scheduled Caste representative, but it must not be taken that the Muslim League has agreed to, or approves of, the selection of the Scheduled Caste representative, the ultimate responsibility in that behalf being with the Governor-General and Viceroy.


•The Congress should not include in the remaining five members of their quota a Muslim of their choice.


•Safeguard: there should be a convention that on major communal issues, if the majority of Hindu or Muslim members of the Executive Council are opposed, then no decision should be taken.


•Alternative or rotational Vice-Presidents should be appointed in fairness to both the major communities as it was adopted in the U.N.O. Conferences.


•The Muslim League was not consulted in the selection of the three minority representatives, i.e. Sikh, Indian Christian and Parsi, and it should not be taken that the Muslim League approved of the selection that had been made. But in future, in the event of there being a vacancy owing to death, resignation or otherwise, representatives of these minorities should be chosen in consultation with the two major parties -the Muslim League and the Congress.


•Portfolios: the most important portfolios should be equally distributed between the two major parties -`the Muslim League and the Congress.


•The above arrangement should not be changed or modified unless both the major parties--the Muslim League and the Congress--agree.


•The question of the settlement of the long-term plan should stand over until a better and more conducive atmosphere is created and an agreement has been reached on the points stated above and after the interim Government has been reformed and finally set up.

The Viceroy consulted Nehru on 4 October and replied to Jinnah`s Nine Points. He agreed to several points. The viceroy even elucidated the other points of Jinnah. Each party must be equally free to nominate its own representatives. In a coalition Government it is impossible to decide major matters of policy when one of the main parties to the coalition is strongly against a course of action proposed. The efficiency and prestige of the interim Government will depend on ensuring that differences are resolved in advance of Cabinet meetings by friendly discussions. A coalition Government either works by a process of mutual adjustment or does not work at all.

However, the arrangement of alternative or rotational Vice-Presidents would present practical difficulty, and did not consider it feasible. However, he would arrange to nominate a Muslim League member to preside over the Cabinet in the event of the Governor-General and Vice-President being absent. The Viceroy will nominate a Muslim League member as Vice-Chairman of the Co-ordination Committee of the Cabinet, which is a most important post. He accepted that both major parties would be consulted before filling a vacancy in any of these three seats. In the present conditions all the portfolios in the Cabinet are of great importance and it is a matter of opinion which is the most important. The minority representatives cannot be excluded from a share of the major portfolios and it would also be suitable to continue Jagjivan Ram in the Labour portfolio. But subject to this, there can be equal distribution of the most important portfolios between the Congress and the Muslim League. Details would be a matter for negotiation. Since the basis for participation in the Cabinet is, of course, acceptance of the Statement of 16 May.

Thus League joined the Interim Government in the last week of October, 1946. The League however was not prepared to accept the Interim Government as a Cabinet, but only as an Executive Council under the Government of India Act. The formation of the interim government and Jinnah`s nine points were some of the vital course of action of the Indian freedom struggle.


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