536 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
House by a Minister of Law who was Minister of the Interim Government at a time when that Minister was contemplating a departure to Pakistan and had no interest in the Bill at all.
Shri H. V. Kamath : He is repeating what he said in the morning.
Mr. Naziruddin Ahmad : Now the present Bill was continued by the Honourable Minister, Dr. Ambedkar, when India was very much occupied with a large number of serious problems. It is evident, as it appears from the admission of the Minister of Law himself, that the present Bill was merely continued without any adequate thought. It was only when it was sent to a Select Committee that it occurred to the Minister of Law that the Bill had not been properly drafted, that it required amendments—whether substantial or not is a different matter, but it required amendments all through. So he himself set down to redraft the whole Bill. In fact the product of that Committee is a book called “The Hindu Code” which is almost exactly the same as the present revised Bill, and it purports to be “a Bill to amend and codify certain branches of the Hindu law” by “Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, Minister of Law”. So what was a Bill submitted by Mr. Jogendra Nath Mandal was informally transformed into a Bill by Dr. Ambedkar. The point I was driving at is this that the Bill not at any time received any consideration or any adequate consideration before the Government first tried to sponsor it. In fact as soon as it was apparent that the Bill was not properly drafted, that it required to be re-written wholesale and that it required to be changed in a large number of particulars, that was the moment to withdraw the Bill. But without withdrawing it the Minister of Law made numerous changes and presented a new Bill. This shows that the Bill was never considered in detail. If it is a fact that even the Government had to change its mind to make serious alterations in the body of the Bill it shows that the Government with its enormous resources were unable to accept it—much less has the country accepted it.
Now, Sir, the present Constituent Assembly was elected for a specific purpose.
Mr. Tajamul Husain : I am afraid the honourable Member is repeating the same thing.
Mr. Speaker : I do not know whether he said this.
Shri L. Krishnaswamy Bharathi : He said it in the morning.
Mr. Naziruddin Ahmad : I had hardly begun it. This House was not elected for the purpose of passing this legislation.