Vol. 14, Part I · pages 746–750

DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES728 hon. Members about that. I, therefore, propose to call a Member of Jain community and a member of Sikh community and then others. Prof. K. T. Shah. Shri H. J. Khandekar : (C. P. and Berar : General) : Why not the Harijans? Maulana Hasrat Mohani : rose. Mr. Deputy Speaker : I am not going to allow this Hon. Member to come in now I will first start with the others. The Honourable Shri Satyanarayan Sinha (Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs) : I want to make one suggestion. If the House agrees, we can sit till 7 o’ clock today and even after that, if members are not satisfied and there are still others who want to speak we can sit on Saturday also. Government is prepared to allot half of Saturday for this business. There will be no Question Hour on Saturday and before Lunch we will have more than 2½ hours. If that suits your purpose and if the House agrees, the House agrees, then that will obviate all the difficulties. Mr. Deputy Speaker : I think it is a very reasonable proposal. I have already said the House will sit on Saturday. There is no going back upon that. If owing to exigencies of public business, it is necessary that we should sit on Saturday, heavens will not fall. We are sitting on Saturdays for committee meetings. I have requested the Government to cancel Select Committee meetings on that day. I shall also see that no Select Committee meetings are fixed for Saturday. Hon. Members will be relieved of all other parliamentary work so that they can take part in the discussion on the Hindu Code. The Hon. Minister for Parliamentary Affairs has just suggested, on behalf of Government, that they are willing to allot Saturday, which they had orginally intended for other Government business, for the discussion on Hindu Code. Finding that more Hon. Members are anxious to speak, they are prepared to allot Saturday, the forenoon of which will be earmarked for non-official Member and the afternoon, allotted to the Hon. Minister of Law for his reply. In addition, he makes another suggestion for the acceptance of the House. It is open to them to accept it or to reject it. In view of that there are many Hon. Members who are anxious to speak. We may sit till seven o’clock today. I leave it at 5 o’clock today, when I shall find out whether the House is tired or is still active to continue the discussion. Personally

DR. AMBEDKAR AND THE HINDU CODE BILL 729 I and my friends of the panel of chairmen are prepared to sit till seven o’clock. I am entirely in the hands of the House in regard to this matter. The Honourable Shri Satyanarayan Sinha : Sir, I said on behalf of Government, that they are prepared to allot half of Saturday for the discussion on the Hindu Code Bill. But as you have already said that the whole of the day would be allotted for this purpose, Government will agree to that. Mr. Deputy Speaker : I hope Government will accept the suggestion which I have made. Pandit Govind Malaviya (U. P. : General): Sir, I wish to submit to you in connection with your ruling, that on the assumption that Saturday will be a free day, some of us have made important and unavoidable engagements elsewhere. Speaking about myself, I have got some unavoidable and important engagement on that day. I hope, Sir, you will keep that fact also in mind. If we had known that Saturday would be a working day we would not have done that. Now this will be upsetting all our engagements, and I, therefore, request that instead of Saturday some other day might be fixed for the discussion of this important measure. It is open to the Government to do so easily. They can take up Government work on Saturday and allot some other day for the discussion of this measure. We will have no objection to that But I hope that the House will appreciate that if others who wish to take part in this debate, are not able to come on that day, they should be given some consideration. The Honourable Shri Satyanarayan Sinha : I think, Government will have no objection if Hon. Members wish to sit on Monday. On Saturday we shall take up other Government business. Shri Ajit Prasad Jain (U. P. : General): Why not continue tomorrow and finish the discussion on this Bill? The Honourable Shri Satyanarayan Sinha : On Saturday we are meeting for Transacting Government business. Government is prepared to have the discussion of this Bill put for Monday, but all the same Saturday will be an Official day. The Honourable Shri K. Santhanam : Members will have less time on Monday than on Saturday, But if the members are willing to conclude the debate on Monday we won’t have any objection. But if the postponement is due to dilatory tactics. . . . Mr. Deputy Speaker : I am really sorry, our friends are not cooperating. A suggestion came from Pandit Govind Malaviya and some

DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES730 other Hon. Members—he is an important member and is taking keen interest in this Bill on one side or the other—that they would prefer this measure being taken up on any day other than Saturday and Government in consideration of their wishes was prepared to take it up on Monday. The Government spokesman has said so. Hon. Members are aware that on Monday there will be the question hour. Knowing this full well they have accepted that day. Sjt. Rohini Kumar Chaudhari : Most respectfully I would like to point out to you, Sir, that Saturday is a holiday given to us for certain purposes. I am willing to forego that holiday if there is an important reason for it. Now I want to ask this House, is it convinced, is it willing to finish this Bill as early as possible? What is the urgency for this Bill? We have more important Bills. We have the Insurance Bill which, according to you, must be passed into law this session. If this Bill ............. Mr. Deputy Speaker : The hon. Member will resume his seat. We have been hearing this objection from some Hon. Members that there is no hurry to get on with this Bill. I am afraid there is no unanimity of opinion in this House so far as that matter is concerned. If there was that unanimity we would not be thirsting for time like this. It is a well known fact that opinion on that point is divided. On the mere suggestion of one Hon. Member I do not want to take the opinion of this House. Now it is clear that Saturday will be an official day when official business other than the Hindu Code Bill will be transacted. On Monday I propose to allow the non-official members to speak till mid-day. In the afternoon I propose to call upon the Hon. Dr. Ambedkar. Shri Mahavir Tyagi : Several of us have been waiting long to catch your eye. Shall I take it as your ruling that, on the Hindu Code Bill no more Hindus shall be allowed to speak? Mr. Deputy Speaker : I did not say so; nor would I say so. The Hon. Member has, unfortunately, though he is very alert, misunderstood me. All that, I said was that, not one single Jain or Sikh member, to whom also this Bill equally applies, has spoken. Shri H. J. Khandekar : What about Harijans? Mr. Deputy Speaker : The sponsor of this Bill is the Leader of the Harijans. It is no good saying that the Harijans do not belong to the Hindu community. I think Harijans are as much Hindus as any others. This caste consciousness need not be pursued any further.

DR. AMBEDKAR AND THE HINDU CODE BILL 731 All that I said was that Jain and Sikh members will be given preference to other members. I have no intention of shutting out any others. As it stands at present, I find that the suggestion of the Government is very reasonable. They have spent so many days on the discussion of this Bill and have given one more day. If still on Monday, it is the general wish of the House that they should go on, I am absolutely in the hands of the House. So far as the Chair is concerned, it is satisfied that there has been sufficient discussion. Shri Mahavir Tyagi : I protest against this. I feel that the Chair’s benign eye should not make a distinction between any class, caste or creed. Your eye should go round the House without distinction of majority or minority. Mr. Deputy Speaker : The Hon. Member has thoroughly misunderstood me. Whenever a Bill comes up for discussion which affects certain communities—unfortunately there are different communities in this country—a chance should be given to the representatives of all communities to express their views. If the Hon. Member reads this Bill, he will find that the scope of the Bill includes Jains and Sikhs also. A number of Hindus have already spoken and so I must allow some Jains and Sikhs to speak now. We must know their viewpoints before we go through the Bill clause by clause. Shri Mahavir Tyagi : I protest ......... Mr. Deputy Speaker : I cannot tolerate this. The Hon. Member will kindly note that it is improper to use this language. * Prof. K. T. Shah (Bihar : General): Sir, originally when the Bill was first introduced and this motion came before the House, I had no great intention to intervenue in the debate. But now that the debate has proceeded so far and a variety of view have been placed before this House, now that there is freedom of voting from Party mandate, I feel it necessary to make some observations arising out of the motion, and of the Bill, which I trust, will receive the consideration of the Hon. the Law Minister and his colleagues. You Sir, have been pleased to say that I have been called upon as a Jain to speak on the matter. I stand here only as a member of the House, and can claim no special right or privilege to speak as a member of any community. I call myself only as Indian citizen and 4 P.M. *C.A. (Leg.) D., Vol. VI, Part II, 14th December 1949, pp. 602-607.

DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES732 do not regard a belief in any particular faith a qualification or a disqualification for participating in discussions like this. I speak only as a member of this House. Sjt. Rohini Kumar Chaudhari : On a point of order, Sir, you called upon Prof. Shah to speak on behalf of the Jains but he says that he does not claim to represent the Jains. Mr. Deputy Speaker : It is no point of order. ‘ Prof. K. T. Shah : I may also add at the same time that I am going to support in general the provisions underlying this Bill even though I happen to have tried to form an opposition which is not yet recognized. Coming though, as it does, from a member professing to be in the opposition, and coming also from one who has consistently opposed almost every provision of the Constitution, every attempt at legislation of a structural or reforming kind that this Government has made. I hope and trust that the support that I am now extending, unconditionally and unreservedly to Bill will meet with the appreciation that it deserves. Unless Government feel the wisdom of the old saving that the Devil may also quote the Scripture and that, therefore any support coming from me should be looked at askance, it should be welcome. If that is their view, the opposition to this Bill would be served much more effectively by me than I at least would like to wish. Holding this view, Sir, and offering my co-operation in this manner, I would like to say in all humility, with the utmost deference to this House, and even at the risk of incurring the charge that we as a people lack a sense of humor, I would not like to use any expression or illustrating which might in any way introduce a tone of levity or lightness in this discussion. I regard this matter, this subject, as so vital to the very existence of our country, I regard this Bill as of such far-reaching consequence that I will not allow any expression or illustration to creep into my remarks which might in any way give any observer, any outsider, any student of our affairs, an appearance as though we are not sufficiently serious in this matter. Having made these observations, I would proceed to examine some of the objections that have been raised some of the pleas that have been urged in regard to the subject matter or even the basic principle of the Bill. The challenge has been made, Sir, whether this body is