PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 455
I do not know whether the Hon. Law Minister had seen the representations, but I have had many letters from many communities, who have a grievance that they have not been included in these lists. It would have been quite proper if, instead of bringing another small Bill confined to one particular class of States—I do not object to the Bill on the other hand, I am in favour of the Bill—some sort of procedure was available to the Members of this House in the case of these two lists, so that it would have been possible for us to scrutinize them and the people would also know how far their rights have been protected. The long discussion and the anxiety of the Members of this House are, I believe, really based on this fact. If everything else was in order, if there was proper investigation as was absolutely necessary in this case, so far as the Parts A and B States are concerned—this is a supplementary list of Scheduled Castes with reference to Part C States—the debate in the House would probably have been much shorter. The keenness of Members would have been less and we would not have had much occasion to complain. But the way in-which the whole thing is being done is really strange and I hope and pray that this sort of thing is not done.
We should have one consolidated enactment in which all these things should be provided for. There will then be no need to have amending Bills month after month to add or subtract and all the various things. My first and very earnest request to the Hon. Minister is that the lists given under these notifications are not exhaustive. The people belonging to many castes feel that they have been unjustly omitted and if we really compare these lists with the lists which formed the basis of the Order in Council under the 1935 Act we will find that many castes have certainly been omitted. If it is contended that these castes which have been omitted have really ceased to be untouchables or there has been a certain change in their social status, that is another matter. We do not know whether the House will accept it or not; whether the people will accept it or not. When we had these lists prepared as schedules to the 1935 Act, there was a great deal of investigation, then the people were informed and they came to know what their rights were and what they should fight