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700 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
C352. Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : I have not exactly followed what is stated in this supplementary statement No. 56 in regard to the representation of women in the Federal Assembly. It is said “We have repeatedly urged that we do not desire the communal virus to enter into our united ranks.” You see that the proposal of the White Paper so far as the representation of women in the Lower House is concerned is not by communal electorates, but is by a general electorate by a single transferable vote ?
Rajkumari Amrit Kaur : Yes.
C353. Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : From that point of view I should have thought it could not be objected to on the ground of its being a communal electorate ?
Rajkumari Amrit Kaur : In the first place the seats in the Lower House of the Federal Assembly for Women are definitely to be on a communal basis. We have the Secretary of State’s clear dictum on that point, in his evidence the day before yesterday or three days ago. In the Lower House of the Federal Assembly the reserved seats to which this indirect system of election refers are definitely to be on a communal basis.
C354. Mr. M. R. Jaykar : Your objection is to the reservation of seats on the communal basis ?
Rajkumari Amrit Kaur : Yes ; and further the indirect system of election to those seats by legislatures which must, in the very nature of the Constitution as proposed today, be on communal lines.
Miss Mary Pickford : May I just interpose here ? In the Secretary of State’s reply when he said that the communal question was involved he was then referring to the women’s seats on the Provincial Council of Bengal. It was not in reference to the seats in the Legislative Assembly.
C355. Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : That is what I thought If I may draw the attention of the witness to page 89 of the White Paper, Appendix II, I should have thought that that matter had been settled once and for all. You also refer to it. “Election to the women’s seat in each of the provinces to which one is allocated will be by the Members of the Provincial Legislature voting by means of the single transferable vote”?
Rajkumari Amrit Kaur : Yes ; but my point is this. May I, then know if the Secretary of State in answer to Miss Pickford’s question was referring to reserved seats on a communal basis for the Provincial Council of Bengal. May I understand whether the communal question does not enter into the reserved seats for women in the Lower House ? Are they to be reserved on a non-communal basis ? I should like to be clear on this point. I want to know on what basis these seats are to be reserved.
C363. Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : Let me follow this further, because, to my mind, there is a certain amount of confusion, and I should like to get it cleared up. First of all, do you object to indirect election as such ?
Rajkumari Amrit Kaur : Yes.