890 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
of hardship I shall certainly consider the matter with great sympathy. I want to make this Hindu Code as easy as I can possibly make it.
Shri Tyagi : As marriage in Punjab !
Dr. Ambedkar : Easy in the sense that I do not want any kind of hostility, or hostile camp against the Hindu Code standing out.
If my hon. friend sees clause 4 he will find that it does not altogether oust custom. Therefore, when any particular clause comes up for consideration, if my hon. friend considers that the existing custom in the Punjab should be saved from the operation of that particular clause and if he can make out a case for exemption, I have no doubt that the matter will be sympathetically considered. I do not intend to give a more detailed reply to that because I think it is quite outside the scope of this particular clause.
- Shri R. K. Chaudhuri : rose —
Shri Raj Bahadur : May I know how many more members are there to speak on amendments.
Dr. Ambedkar : I suggest that this clause be disposed of today. We have spent two days on it and there has been more than enough debate on it.
Shri R. K. Chaudhuri : Sir, I claim the credit of being isolated in the matter of this legislation.
Shri Syamnandan Sahaya : The hon. Member can come to the front bench and speak.
Shri R. K. Chaudhuri : Will you let me sit there tomorrow during the question hour ?
I confess that in this House I am isolated. But I hope the Hon. the Law Minister will have the courtesy to admit—which is a fact—that he is completely isolated outside this House. I do not regret the position in which I am placed, because I find that hon. Members of this House are afraid of speaking out the truth of telling the hon. lady Members of this House what they ought to be told that they are proving themselves far too aggressive. This, I respectfully submit, is not a matter to be laughed over. Hon. Members of this House would have noticed the way in which my revered friend Babu Ramnarayan Singh was squeezed out of his seat yesterday. It is only on account of the relenting heart of a certain lady Member that my hon. Friend has found his way to his seat.
- P.D., Vol. VIII, Part II. 6th February 1951, pp. 2473-83.