814 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
system hereafter. That is within the privilege and power of this House, but I do not think that the House will be acting rightly or in accordance with what I call public conscience if it says tht these people who, as I said, are so small, who have come on the assurance of our own Government to make their home here, should be denied the right of citizenship. Sir, I do not think therefore that there is any substance in the criticism that has been levelled against these articles and I hope the House will accept them as they are.
SECTION 291
of Government of India Act, 1935
(Amendment) Bill
*The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : Mr. Vice-President, Sir, I find from the speeches to which I have listened so far that there is a great deal of misunderstanding as to what this particular Bill, particularly clause 4 of it, proposes to do. I think it is desirable at the outset to tell the House what exactly is intended to be done by clause 4. In order to put the House in a proper frame of mind—if I may say so without meaning any offence—I should like to draw the attention of the House to the wording of Section 291 of the Government of India Act as it was in operation before it was adapted after the Independence Act. Now I shall read just a few lines of that Section 291.
“In so fur as provision with respect to matters hereinafter mentioned is not made by this Act. His Majesty in Council (and I want to emphasise these words His Majesty in Council) may from time to time make provision with respect to those matters or any of them. etc.. etc.”
The first tiling that I would like to draw the attention of the House is this that in clause 4 of this Bill the matters which are enumerated from (b) to (j) are exactly the matters which are enumerated in the old Section 291. Therefore, it has to be understood at the outset that this clause, clause 4, is not making any fundamental change in the provisions contained in the original Section 291. The matters for which the Governor-General is going to be given powers by the provisions of the new Sectiion 291, as embodied in this Bill, are the same which were given by the original Section 291 to His Majesty in Council. (An Honourable Member : No.) I hope that this will be now clear to everybody and I do not think there can be any doubt on it, for anyone who compares the different clauses in this Bill and in the original Section 291 will have all his doubts removed.
* CAD. Vol. IX, dated 18th August 1949, pp. 465-68.