816 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
Dr. P. S. Deshmukh : Which includes schedules 5 and 6.
The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : Oh, yes ; that is quite true. I admit without any kind of reservation that that is a change which is being made. Now the question is why should we make that change. The reason why we have to make the change in order to give the Governor-General the power even to alter the composition is to be found in the situation in which we find ourselves. Honourable Members will remember that there has been a considerable shifting of the population on account of partition. The population of East Punjab is surely not in any stereotyped condition. Refugees are coming and going. On the 1st April the population numbered so much ; six months thereafter it may number something quite different from what it was then. Similarly with regard to West Bengal and many other provinces where refugees have been taken by the Government of India under their scheme of rehabilitation or the refugees themselves have voluntarily travelled from one area to another. Obviously you cannot allow the provisions contained in the Fifth and Sixth Schedules with regard to the numbers in the legislature to remain what they were when we know as a matter of fact that the population has lost all relation to the numbers then prescribed in the Schedules. It is therefore in order to take into account the shifting of the population that power is given to the Governor-General to alter even the Schedules winch deal with the composition of the legislature.
I hope my honourable Friends will now understand that in giving this additional power of making an order with regard to the composition of the Chamber or Chambers the intention is to permit the GovernorGeneral to make an order which will bring the strength of the different legislatures in the provinces affected to suit the numbers in those provinces. There is no nefarious purpose.
Dr. P. S. Deshmukh : You had two full years to rectify this position.
The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : That is a different matter. I am only explaining why these provisions are being introduced by this new clause.
I have said that the other provisions are merely reproductions of what is contained in the original Section 291. This power is not being taken for a wanton or an unnecessary purpose nor is it intended to be used for anything other than a bona fide purpose. Therefore having regard to these circumstances my submission is that clause 4 is a perfectly justifiable proposal, both from the point of view of conferring these powers, which originally vested in His Majesty in Council, to be vested