DR. AMBEDKAR AND THE HINDU CODE BILL 1157
that I have paid the closest possible attention to the speeches which have been delivered in what I call the supplementary debate it has not been possible for me to find out what new point has been raised in the course of this supplementary debate which was not raised in the original debate. The only new factor which I have discovered in the course of this supplementary debate is the speech made by my friend Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee and another by our friend Mr. Man. Beyond that there has been nothing more than an expansive debate on points which were probably touched upon in the original debate.
With regard to Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee I have a feeling that it is not necessary to take him seriously at all. He has, it seems to me, no mind of his own.
Babu Ramnarayan Singh : have you ?
Dr. Ambedkar : I have, most certainly.
He was, as hon. Members of the House will know, a member of this Government practically for four years, during which this Bill has been placed before this House by the Government in office. I have not any recollection whatsoever, during the course of these four years when Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee was a member of the Government and when the Government had already sponsored this bill and put it before the House and it was in bits being discussed by Members of the House, that there was any single occasion inside the Cabinet when Dr. Mookerjee to my knowledge expressed the slightest difference of opinion on this Bill as against the Government.
Shri Syamnandan Sahaya (Bihar) : Is it open for the Hon. Minister to disclose what happened there or what did not happen there ?
Dr. Ambedkar : I am saying so. I remember also that in the earlier part, there were many party meetings held to discuss what should be done with regard to this particular Bill. I have a very clear recollection that in most of the meetings that were held, Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee was present and even then I do not recollect a single occasion when Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee—in the party which is an informal thing and where members of the Government are free to express their personal opinions, which they may not express outside on account of the joint responsibility— ever said anything against this Bill. It is, therefore, as I said, a matter of moods. (An hon. Member : Conviction.) Not at all. Either a man has a conviction or he has no conviction. That is my point. ( An Hon. Member : He has resigned from the Cabinet.) I am sorry to say that he is to my mind