606 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
thereon. Therefore, I submit that I am not prepared to accept any of the amendments that have been moved here.
[All the three amendments moved by Prof. K. T. Shah, Mr. Mod. Tahi and Mr. Naziruddin Ahmad were rejected by the House.]
ARTICLE 131
*Mr. President : It is only a question of the order in which the amendments are taken. I want to dispose of the question of election first.
Shri T. T. Krishnamachari : The choice of the alternative may be left to the mover. Dr. Ambedkar may say which he proposes to move. Normally the procedure will be to move a particular article. The Chairman of the Drafting Committee will be the person to make the choice, if you allow it to him, that will solve the problem. He might move one of the alternatives. This procedure is going to come in the way of normal procedure later on. So, I think the best thing is to leave the discretion to the mover. If you recognise Dr. Ambedkar as mover, then he may be asked to move one or other of the alternatives.
Mr. President : Is Dr. Ambedkar prepared to accept one of the other alternatives ?
The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : Sir, I want to say a word regarding procedure to be followed. Taking the article 131, as it is, no doubt it is put in an alternative form. The two alternatives have one tiling in common viz., that they propose the Governor to be elected. The form of election is for the moment a subsidiary question. As against that, there are three or four amendments here which set out a principle which is completely opposed to the two alternative drafts of 131 and they suggest that the Governor should be nominated. If the amendment which proposes that the Governor should be nominated were to be accepted by the House, then both the alternatives would drop out and it will be unnecessary for the House to consider them. Therefore my suggestion would be that it would be desirable to take up No. 2010 of Mr. Gupte, and then Mr. Kamath and then No. 2015. If this matter was taken up first and the House came to the conclusion on whether the principle of appointment by the President should be accepted, then obviously there
- CAD, Vol. VIII, 30th May 1949, p. 425.