DR. AMBEDKAR AND THE HINDU CODE BILL 919
Dr. Ambedkar : It is one o’clock. Have you concluded ?
Shri Biswanath Das : I will continue in the afternoon.
The House then adjourned for Lunch till Half Past Two of the Clock.
The House re-assembled after Launch at Half Past Two of the Clock.
[M R . D EPUTY -S PEAKER in the Chair ]
Shri Biswanath Das : Sir, in the course of my speech this morning, I was speaking how, in democratic countries, when important, legislations and questions have to be taken up and are being placed on the statute book, the party foresees the legislation, ……..
Shri Ramraj Jajware (Bihar) : On a point of order, Sir. There is no Member on the Treasury Benches.
Mr. Deputy-Speaker : It is regrettable that there is nobody to represent Government. The Minister of Law has just come in.
Shri Biswanath Das : ... places its programme before the country in the form of a manifesto, then on the basis of that manifesto, elections take place, and the party gets a vote in favour of the principles for which it stands. I claim that nothing of that kind is possible in an indirectly elected legislature as the present Parliament is. None-the-less, we have an electorate. That electorate is an enlightened electorate. Neither the Hon. the Law Minister nor his friends in this House or outside this House could say that the electorate to which we have the honour to belong is not enlightened. They are no other than the Members of the State legislatures. I claim that Government and the Law Minister should have taken necessary steps in this regard to consult the State Legislative Assemblies on this important legislation by requesting them to have their say in the matter, which would have given an opportunity to the country to speak itself. At the same time, it would have made the passage of this legislation easy and convenient: easy because with the command given by our electorate, it would not have been possible for the hon. Members of this House to oppose this legislation without resigning their seats ; convenient because no one would have had the audacity to say, “I differ from this legislation and yet I continue to be a Member of the House”. No one could have it both ways. No one could afford to be a Member of the House and refuse to carry out the mandate of the electorate. Therefore I claim -that the Hon. the Law Minister as also Government have failed in