188 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
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*QUALIFICATIONS FOR ELECTIONS TO PARLIAMENT AND LEGISLATURE OF STATES
Shri Sarwate (Madhya Bharat) : Before you proceed further with the amendments would you not like, Sir, to call upon Dr. Ambedkar and enquire whether he would like to make any statement on the suggestion which Prof. K.T. Shah has made?
Mr. Speaker : I do not think it was necessary for me to call upon him. If he had tried to catch my eye, certainly I would have called him.
The Minister of Law (Dr. Ambedkar) : I do not want my friend Prof. K.T. Shah to feel that I have not sufficient respect for him by not speaking on his motion and if you will, Sir, permit me at this stage I would like to say a few words.
Mr. Speaker, I must confess that when I got the text of the Resolution moved by Prof. Shah I was considerably puzzled, because I felt that in a Resolution of this sort there should not merely be words indicating to Government that there exists in the Constitution a certain article which permitted them to legislate on it but should have also included in it specific suggestions as to what the Government should do in a legislation of this sort. As I said, I was considerably puzzled and therefore it was very difficult for me to come to any definite conclusion as to the attitude I should adopt with regard to this Resolution. I now see that the object of Prof. Shah in framing the Resolution in the terms in which he has framed it was really deliberate. He wanted the House to give him some idea as to what should be incorporated in a legislation under sub-clause (c) of the relevant article in the Constitution. Well, I have no objection to a procedure of
*P.D., Vol. 6, Part II, 23rd November 1950, pp. 537-41.