664 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
able to comprehend this measure, are going to welcome it heartily and
that even the women of the generations to come will feel grateful to
him for having got it passed.
- Shri Kameshwar Singh of Darbhanga (Bihar : General) : Sir, it has become very difficult for those of us who are opposed to the motion moved on behalf of Government to take part in this debate after what our Prime Minister has said in this House about the measure before us on the opening day of this session. I was not present in the House when he made the statement, but if the press report be true, he has made the passage of the Bill an issue of confidence in his Government. I am strongly opposed to the measure. (Interruption).
Mr. Deputy Speaker : Order, order. Nothing will go on if these interruptions are made. The interruptions will only increase the time taken by the Members.
Pandit Lakshmi Kanta Maitra : Apparently the hon. Member is making a very good speech.
Shri Kameshwar Singh of Darbhanga : But I am equally strong in my view that in the present state of our country the Government of our Prime Minister is the best Government that we can have. Howsoever imperfect it may be, a better alternative to the present Government is not available. That, I think, is the view of the most of the people who do not belong to any political party. Thus, the stand taken up by our Prime Minister assumes the shape of “Undue influence”, if not “coercion”, for men of my way of thinking. I would therefore earnestly request the Prime Minister to reconsider the matter and unload the question of confidence in his Government from the consideration of the measure.
I would like the House and Government to postpone further consideration of the bill till the wishes of the electorate are ascertained in the next general elections for reasons stated by the hon. Dr. Rajendra Prasad, in the note which he sent in the capacity of the President of the Indian National Congress to our Prime Minister last year.
Hon. Members of this House know that there is a great divergence of opinion with regard to this important measure of, if I may say so, revolutionary character. It affects the personal law of the vast multitude of people. It affects their social and economic life as well as the forms and customs that have grown with the various schools of the Hindu law during so many centuries. In the name of uniformity and codification it threatens to arbitrarily disrupt the fundamental social
*C.A. (Leg.) D., Vol. VI, Part II, 13th December 1949, pp. 541-43.