PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 461
all those Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes that were in the Act of 1935, then the number of reserved seats would become very large. In some of the States, for instance in the Uttar Pradesh where there are 13 lakhs of Khatiks, they have been completely ignored in the President’s list. If they are included, I think nearly 40 per cent of the seats in U. P. would go to the Scheduled Castes alone. And that is not a small thing that they should get this much in a Part A State and be able to influence the destinies and the politics of the State. Therefore, intentionally and specially and deliberately they have been excluded so as to minimise the representation of the Scheduled Castes in the State. That is the case not only in the U. P. but in some other States also. But in most of the South Indian States they have drawn up the list according to the 1935 Act. Therefore, the whole list has to be re-formulated and the promise given by the late Sardar Patel in the Constituent Assembly that the list of 1935 Act would be accepted in Parliament for the coming election, must be kept, injustice to the departed leader and also to the Father of the Nation and also to the millions of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes who have been enjoying certain privileges on the basis of caste or community.
According to the present arrangement alone can do that. For instance, I am from Madras, cannot go and contest a seat in any other State, say in Bombay. Therefore, there is this constitutional difficulty also which has to be removed by Parliament as Parliament alone can do that. For instance, I belong to the Travancore-Cochin State and so I cannot go to Bombay and contest a seat there, and that is a discrimination against my community, because non-Scheduled Castes can freely contest any seat anywhere in India according to party basis or on any other basis. Therefore it is my request not only to the Government but also to Parliament to rectify these constitutional anomalies as soon as possible. My submission is that most of the castes dropped from the former list will have to be included and a fair list drawn up so that the reservation given to the Scheduled Castes and Tribes may be on a just and fair basis. Otherwise let us drop the thing altogether and we will fight our battles on equal footing with