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702 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
would not want any earmarking of seats for women as such in the Federal Lower House ?
Rajkumari Amrit Kaur ; Certainly not.
C374. Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : If it is to be, then you would want it on a system of joint electorate and direct election ?
Rajkumari Amrit Kaur : Yes ; direct election and a non-communal basis.
C375. Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : Let me take the non-communal basis. Do you want this constituency for direct election to consist only of women in that particular constituency ?
Rajkumari Amrit Kaur : No ; we want men and women.
C376. Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : You want this constituency to be a sort of composite constituency, in which the voters will be both men and women ?
Rajkumari Amrit Kaur : Yes.
C377. Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : With this restriction that the candidate to be ultimately elected from that constituency would be a woman ?
Rajkumari Amrit Kaur : Yes ; that is to say, if a woman was to be elected to a reserved seat, it would naturally follow that it must be a woman.
C378. Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : How would you provide these direct constituencies for the Legislative Assembly ?
Rajkumari Amrit Kaur : As I say we have not got any constructive proposals on this because we have throughout been opposed to reservation. We would leave that to the discretion of the Committee, but if reservations were given to us, on the terms and the only terms on which we would accept it, we would leave it to the discretion of the Committee to form such constituencies as would be the most representative.
C379. Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : I thought you said in answer to a question that you objected to this indirect system of election provided in the White Paper for the representation of women in the Lower House of the Federal Legislature, because, in a certain sense, it would be, what shall I say, communally-minded ?
Rajkumari Amrit Kaur : Yes.
C380. Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : That the representatives in the various Provincial Councils would act in a communal manner in the exercise of their votes, and that is the ground of your objection ?
Rajkumari Amrit Kaur : I have already answered this question, have I not?
C381. Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : Yes ; I want to put one more question. Further, I see, and I want to get this matter clear, that you object to the indirect election that is proposed in the White Paper because you think that the representatives of the different communities in the Provincial Legislature will be communally-minded, and, therefore, communal considerations will be imported in that election ?
Rajkumari Amrit Kaur : May I give you the answer again? We object to indirect election first of all, because naturally we want direct election.