Vol. 15 · pages 836–840

817PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES Mr. Deputy Speaker: At about 6 O’clock. Dr. Ambedkar: It was first arranged between you and me and the Prime Minister that I should make a statement on the 6th. As certain part of the business was not finished on the 6th it was definitely agreed that you would be pleased to suspend the rule about the transaction of business and allow me to make the statement on the 11th. So this is the time when I should make the statement would be read as an ex-Minister ? I think he was not told that at 6 O’clock the correspondence. Mr. Deputy Speaker: It is true that I said to the hon. the Law Minister that I will suspend the rule. Normally under rule 128, immediately after the question hour is over any hon. Minister who has resigned can make, with the permission of the Speaker, a statement in explanation of his resignation. Today I have to suspend the rule for that purpose, and I am going to do it. I am only suggesting that it may be put off till 6 O’clock. That is all. Dr. Ambedkar: Why not now ? Mr. Deputy Speaker: At 6 O’clock I will hear the hon. Minister. Dr. Ambedkar: I do not quite understand why my statement should be postponed to 6 O’clock. Mr. Deputy Speaker: Under the rules the Speaker must give his consent before any hon. Minister can make a statement. I would like to know what statement the hon. Minister is going to make. Of course it, involves my consent. I am not disclosing anything to the House which is not provided for, I would request the hon. Minister to give me a copy of the statement and I will allow him to read the statement this afternoon. Dr. Ambedkar: If that was so, you could have already told me when I saw you that I should hand over my statement to you before you give the permission. You did not do so.

818 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES Mr. Deputy Speaker: There is no harm. Dr. Ambedkar: I came and subsequently wrote a letter but so far as I am concerned you did not say that I should furnish you with a copy of my statement before you come to the conclusion that you would permit me to make a statement and so far as I read rule 128, I do not see. that there is any provision therein which requires that a statement should be submitted to the Speaker before he gives consent. The Prime Minister had asked me for a copy of my statement and I have given him a copy of my statement. If you had also given me an order that I should submit a copy of my statement to you before you come to the conclusion Whether I should make it or not, I should have been very glad to do so but you gave me no such indication when I came to you. I felt the difficulty was that under the rules the statement should be made immediately after the question hour and the Prime Minister was very keen that I should finish certain business which it may not be possible for other; Members to undertake because it involves certain difficult matters. I agreed to this and then I came to you and said, “Will you kindly suspend the rules so that I may help the Prime Minister in getting the business through” ? You never said that you wanted to see a copy of my statement before’ you permitted me and I see that now you have raised this point for the first time. Pandit Kunzru: May I know whether the Chair can claim some sort of censorship as stated by you ? Mr. Deputy Speaker: Yes, The kind of censorship which the Chair can always exercise is to avoid the matter which ought not to be placed before the House, Which is libellous, slanderous, irrelevant and so on and so forth, ( Interruption). Order, order, I am only answering the question which was put. I can certainly do so. I am not going to allow observations of an irrelevant nature and improper statements. I will confine myself strictly to rule 128 and if an Hon. Minister goes on making a statement on the floor of the House, I am entitled to call him to order, if I find that the statement

819PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES is lacking in decency or decorum or I otherwise regard it as irrelevant. I have always got the power. Otherwise, this rule would be meaningless. So far as giving the permission to the Hon. Minister is concerned, I agree he came to me. Possibly his memory is short, but he did not suggest to me that under the rules I can suspend the standing orders. I wanted to accommodate him and said I would allow him to make a statement at any time that he liked and I brought to his notice that I can suspend the order. He agreed. Even now during the course of his statement if I do not agree and if I feet that a particular statement ought not to be made. I can certainly ask that portion to be erased from the proceedings of the house. In order to avoid all this. I would like to know what exactly the statement is. It is not going beyond the rules and the scope of my powers. I am prepared to allow him to make a statement suspending the rule, that immediately after the question hour the statement may be made. It still stands. I am not going behind that position and as it is open to me while the Hon. Minister is making a statement, to see that this kind of matter ought not to be stated on the floor of the House. I only asked him, now that there is time, to give me a copy of the statement. I learn that he has given a copy to the Prime minister, the Leader of the House. But to the hands of the Speaker the entire privilege of the house, the honour, the decorum and everything is entrusted. Therefore there ought to be no difference so far as the Speaker is concerned in this matter. I am not going out of the way. I am trying to exercise my powers without prejudice either to the dignity of the house or of the hon. Members with regard to the freedom of making a statement. I will allow the Hon. Minister to make the statement at 6 O’clock. Shri Kamath: Is it not a fact that under the rules a Minister or a Member may be called to order on the ground of irrelevance or otherwise, but that the statement should not be pre-censored ? Mr. Deputy Speaker: That is not so, I think under the rules I am entitled to see what is the statement that the Hon Minister is going to make now.

820 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES Dr. Ambedkar: I take it that you do not wish me to make a statement that is how I interpret your ruling. I am no longer a Minister. I am going out. I am not going to submit myself to this kind of dictation. Pandit Kunzru : May I know when Shri Shyama Prasad Mookerjee resigned if he was asked by the Speaker to be supplied with a copy of the statement before he made it in the House ? Mr. Deputy Speaker: He had a talk with the Hon. Speaker and he told him what he intended to state on the floor of the House. All that was discussed in the House. The House will now proceed with the next business. Pandit Kunzru: A copy of the speech was not supplied to him. Mr. Deputy Speaker: That was not necessary. Shri Kamath : We have been deprived of the statement anyway. Mr. Deputy Speaker: It was left to him. Hon. Members are now told that he is not going to make a statement.

821PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES (43) *DR. AMBEDKAR’S LETTER OF RESIGNATION Mr. Deputy Speaker: I said that at Six O’clock Dr. Ambedkar may make his statement if he likes. I do not find him in his seat. Under the rules, immediately after the question hour is over, any hon. Minister who has resigned can, with the consent of the Speaker, be allowed to make a statement. Today the question hour was over this morning after the shortnotice question and Dr. Ambedkar piloted the Delimitation of Constituencies Motions and that is why it could not be done immediately when he wanted to make a statement. Thereafter, I thought, in keeping with the practice, either he may do it immediately after the questions or at the close of the day at Six O’clock. Therefore I fixed 6 O’clock. I would be only too glad to give him an opportunity now, but he is not here. 6-00 P.M. As regards the copy of his statement, it is true when he wanted to make an oral statement, at the time he approached me in the Chamber, I could not anticipate and ask him to put the thing in writing and give it me. It was not right. Therefore I allowed him to make a statement and even said that I would suspend the rules, if he could not make the statement immediately after the question hour. But this morning I found that what he wanted to make by way of a statement, he had put it in writing and had given a copy to the Prime Minister, who is also the Leader of the House. Naturally, I sent word through the Secretary, sufficiently in advance or long before he rose to make his statement, to send me a copy of the statement. I am sorry to say that he would not furnish me with a copy. I do not know why. I have to regulate the debate ; not that I wanted to interfere with the statement at all. When any statement is read before *P. D., Vol. 16, Part II, 11th October 1951, pp. 4730-37.