DR. AMBEDKAR AND THE HINDU CODE BILL 1297
Mr. Chairman : May I request the Hon. Member that he should proceed with his speech instead of answering these questions.
Shri Jhunjhunwala : Sir, I am prepared to abide by your orders. But when any Hon. Member interrupts, it becomes difficult to proceed further and it also takes more time to come to the speech proper.
Dr. Ambedkar: Do not get nervous, they are your comrades.
Shri Jhunjhunwala : Comrades also desert sometimes. I have had a number of comrades like you. You have been professing yourself to be a champion of women’s cause, but ultimately deserted them.
Sir, I am continuing with my speech but the Hon. Minister interrupts.
Sardar B. S. Man : Will it not be discourteous to the Hon. Law Minister to ignore the interruptions and not to reply to it ?
Shri Jhunjhunwala : Then there is another point which I would like to submit. Pandit Thakur Das Bhargava said that if anything is suggested that might lead to some harm and if anybody is doing a wrong thing, then how far is it proper to ask others also to do the same thing ? How far is it wise to ask women to do wrong to men if the latter are behaving in that manner ? That is what I am going to point out.
Then we have to see whether this thing is progressive or not. Our Hon. Minister of Home Affairs, Shri Rajaji is not here at present. He made some remark while referring the Press Bill to Select Committee. He said that an article or a caricature about him (I do not exactly remember what it was) appeared in some paper. When he saw it, he found it most revolting and at the same time very obscene. He did not know why it was published and felt it very much. But he said when he saw the news papers of the present day, he felt there was nothing special in that paper which should have offended him ( Interruptions ). My hon. Friends are trying to interrupt me.
Mr. Chairman : If you address the Chair perhaps you will not feel that inconvenience.
Shri Jhunjhunwala : I am accustomed to look all round while speaking.
So, he said that it was quite insignificant. As compared to the articles and caricatures that appear in the present day press, that thing did not seem to be obscene at all. He said he felt it unnecessarily. The newspapers force us to see and read those things that we do not like to see, and young men and women of the country read them. God knows what influence those things might be leaving on our youths.