428 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
There are really two points which require, I believe, some explanation. As the House knows, there are altogether ten Part C States. It has not been possible for Government to provide representation for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes in all the ten Part C States and the reason is this. We have had to consider two different propositions. One was whether the Part C States in which a provision was to be made for the representation of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes had sufficient number of seats, so that if a seat was reserved for the Scheduled Caste or for the Scheduled Tribe, the result would not be the complete disenfranchisement of the general population. Obviously, there are some States which are included in Part C States where the total representation given to that particular State is only one seat in the House of the People. For instance, Bilaspur is one such State. Coorg is one such State where one that is given. Obviously, it is not possible to apply the principle of reservation in cases of that sort, where a seat could be allotted to the Scheduled Castes, the result of which would be total negation of the representation of the general population. Therefore, in providing representation for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in Part C States, we have had to select only those States where there is room for both to be represented in the Lower House.
The second principle that we have had to take into consideration was the totality of the population of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in any
4-00 P . M . particular Part C State. Where the population was very small, we have not thought it proper to give any representation. But, where the population is considerable having regard to the total population, we have thought that a seat might be given in those areas. Consequently, what the Bill does is this. It reserves seats for the Scheduled Castes in Delhi, Himachal Pradesh and Vindhya Pradesh, one seat in each of these three Part C States. Here, the House will see that there is no great resulting injustice for the simple reason that Delhi has four seats, Himachal Pradesh has three seats and Vindhya Pradesh has six seats. We have felt that these States could well afford to allow one seat to be given to the Scheduled Castes.