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566 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
the maximum should be.
Dr. Ambedkar : I should like to make the observation with regard to the first paragraph in your summarisation. I should like to have it stated in the paragraph which you have drawn up that the opinion of the Committee was that the extension of the franchise should be limited by considerations of administration and machinery. That was the only limitation that we thought should be put in.
Sir C. Setalvad : It is not merely administration ; there are other considerations as well.
Mrs. Subbarayan : What is practicable ?
Dr. Ambedkar: Practical means machinery. I mean the Committee might find that it was practicable with the present machinery that 50 per cent of the population should be enfranchised.
Mr. Zajrullah Khan: Do you mean 50 per cent of the total population ?
Dr. Ambedkar: Yes.
Mr. Zajrullah Khan : That would be slightly more than universal adult franchise.
Chairman : It is suggested that we should leave out the maximum. The whole thing is conditional on the expert Committee finding it practicable and desirable ; so that we need not have a maximum. Let us leave out the maximum. Does anyone wish me to read it again?
Mr. K. T. Paul: If you leave out 25 per cent, if it weakens our statement I would not agree to it.
Chairman: It does not weaken it.
Mr. Chintamani: Very often in these matters when a minimum is stated it comes to be a maximum in actual practice. If we indicate the figure 10 per cent in our Report, it will show the Franchise Committee that is appointed that we should be contented if they secure a maximum of 10 per cent. Those of us who mentioned the figure of 25 per cent did so as a sort of unsatisfactory compromise between the present position and adult franchise. I, for one, shall not be happy if you take it out.
Mr. Foot: Mr. Chintamani mentioned 25 per cent of the adult population ?
Mr. Chintamani: Of the total population.
Mr. Foot: I beg your pardon.
Mr. Joshi: Sir, I am very sorry to say that you should not put down in the Report that the suggestion is a unanimous one, because I for one would not agree to it, and I reserve to myself the right of re-opening the question of adult suffrage in the full Conference.
Dr. Ambedkar: That is my position too.
Mr. Joshi: It should be put down in the Report.
† Dr. Ambedkar: It would be a second best, provided we knew it was going to work. (Universal adult suffrage.)
† Proceedings of the Sub-Committee No. VI (Franchise), pp. 76-78.