556 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : The Drafting Committee may be very glad to follow that procedure.
*The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : Sir I move :
“ That in the proviso to clause (2) of article 68, for the words ‘ by the President’ the words ‘by Parliament by law’ be substituted.”
It is not necessary to offer any explanation for the amendment which I have moved. It will be seen that the clause as it stands vests the power of extending the life of Parliament in the President. It is felt that this is so much of an invasion of the ordinary constitutional provisions that such a matter should really be vested in Parliament and that Parliament should be required to make such a provision for extending the life of itself by law and not by any other measure such as a resolution or motion.
Mr. President : Amendment No. 1465 : that is covered by Dr. Ambedkar’s amendment. It is not necessary to take it up.
†The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : Mr. President, Sir, I do not think that anything has been said in the course of the debate on my amendment No. 1464, which calls for a reply. I think the amendment contains a very sound principle and I hope the House will accept it.
With regard to the amendment moved by my friend Prof. Shah, I think some of the difficulties which arise from it, have already been pointed out by my friend Mr. T. T. Krishnamachari. Election, after all, is not a simple matter. It involves a tremendous amount of cost and I think it would be unfair to impose both upon the Government and upon the people this enormous cost of too frequent elections for short periods. I quite sympathise with the point of view expressed by Prof. Shah, that it has been the experience throughout that whenever an election takes place immediately after a war, people sometimes become so unbalanced that the election cannot be said to represent the true mind of the people. But at the same time, I think it must be realised that war is not the only cause or circumstance which leads to the unhinging, so to say, of the minds of the people from their normal moorings. There are many other circumstances, many incidents which are not actually wars, but which may cause similar unbalancing of the mind of the people. It is no use, therefore, providing for one contingency and leaving the other contingencies untouched, by the amendment which prof. Shah has moved. Therefore, it seems to me that on the whole it is much better to leave the situation as it is set out in the Draft Constitution.
*CAD, Vol. VIII, 18th May 1949, p. 85.
† Ibid., p. 88.