496 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : Having explained my position with regard to that point, I shall not repeat what I have said then. Coming to sub-clause (b) of article 56, various points have been raised. First of all a point has been raised that the words ‘bribery, corruption etc.’ should be added. Personally I do not think that any such particular phrase is necessary. Want of confidence is a very large phrase and is big enough to include any ground such as corruption, bribery etc. Therefore that amendment, in my judgment, is not necessary. The second point that has been made is that the removal of the Vice-President should be governed by the same rules as the removal of the President viz., that there should be a majority of two-thirds. Now, Sir, with regard to that point. I would like to draw the attention of the House that although the Constitution speaks of Vice-President, he really is a Chairman of the Council of States. In other words, so far as his functions are concerned, he is merely an opposite number of the Speaker of the House of People. Consequently in making a comparison or comment upon the provisions contained in sub-clause ( b ) of article 56 those provisions should be compared with the articles dealing with the removal of the Speaker and they are contained in article 77(c). If this article 56(b) is compared with the article 77(c), members will find that the position is exactly identical. The same rules which are made applicable to the removal of the Speaker are also made applicable to the removal of the Vice-President who, as I have stated, is really another name for the Chairman of the Council of States. Consequently, the requirement of two-thirds majority is unnecessary.
And then my friend Mr. Kamath has raised what I might call a somewhat ticklish question. He said that sub-clause ( b ) of this article speaks of a majority, while when the reference is made to the House of the People, no such phraseology is used. Now, the matter is quite simple. Whenever we have said that a certain resolution has to be passed, it is understood that it has to be passed by a majority of the House. It is only when a special majority is mentioned that a reference is made to a majority and not otherwise. Now, I quite agree that his argument is that although we do not mention or specify any particular majority with respect to the Council of States, we have still used the phraseology— passed by a majority. Why is this distinction made ? Why is this distinction between the phraseology used in regard to the Council