1070 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
Mr. Deputy Speaker: The Hon. Minister, if he has got any more definite information, he may give the House. The House expects him to give a resonable period.
Dr. Ambedkar : All I can say is to request my hon. friend to go and contact the Election Commissioner. His office will probably give all the information that he needs.
Mr. Deputy Speaker: The Hon. Minister is expected to be in touch with the Election Commissioner. It is his portfolio. There is no good generally giving such answers. The hon. Member can draw his own inferences. But, he expects that the Government will be able to say, within a month or two months and so on. All the three answers do not appear to be definite at all.
Dr. Ambedkar: I have no information with me on the point.
Prof. Ranga: Mr. Deputy Speaker, my objection is that any of the Hon. Ministers should get up and ask us to go to one of his subordinates and get the information is really derogatory to the dignity of the House.
Mr. Deputy Speaker: I think the Hon. Law Minister only meant that whether information could be had from official sources, they must exhaust all that before taking the time of the House with respect to such matters as are available.
Dr. Ambedkar: I am sure about it, that my hon. friend Prof. Ranga goes to officials on many other occasions without feeling any loss of dignity.
Prof. Ranga: This sort of answer raises another controversy. We may or we may not go. But, it is not for the Minister to ask us when we ask for information that we should go to one of his subordinates and get that information, instead of himself getting the information.
Pandit Thakur Das Bhargava: Will the Hon. Ministers themselves not resent if Members went for information to the officers subordinate to them apart from the question of the dignity of Members ?