Assertion (A): The Poona Pact defeated the purpose of Communal Award.
Reason (R): It paved the way for reservation of seats in the Parliament and the State Assemblies for the SC and ST people.
Select the correct answer from the code given below:
Correct Answer: (a) Both (A) and (R) are true, and (R) is the correct explanation of (A).
Solution:On 16 August, 1932, Ramsay Macdonald announced his Communal Award. The award authorised Indian Christians, Muslims, Europeans, Sikhs, depressed classes and others separate electorates. Gandhi began fast unto death on 20 September, 1932 to protest against this decision. Finally, on 24 September, 1932 an agreement was made in Poona known as 'Poona Pact' in which joint electorate was accepted on the basis of two provisions. The two provisions were โ Firstly, there were 148 seats reserved for depressed classes in the provincial legislature while only 71 seats were reserved according to communal award. In Central Legislature, 18 percent of the seats allotted to the general electorate were reserved for Depressed classes in central legislature. So reason (R) explains Assertion (A) correctly, and both statements are true. So, the option (a) is correct answer.