PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 463
forces from all parts of India were concentrated in Delhi to oppose the Muslim candidate put up by the Congress, Delhi was able to uphold the principle of joint electorates and had returned the minority community candidate. I would have considered it a privilege if Delhi and other Part C states were allowed the opportunity to return Harijan candidates without reserving seats for them. That would have given us also an idea as to what will happen after ten years when all such reservations will go. But my friend the Mover of the Bill, who unfortunately has always held a different view, has thought it fit to bring this Bill. Now that the Bill has been brought forward I support the Bill, for there can be no opposition either in principle or in substance so far as this Bill is concerned.
I would however like to make one or two observations. Reference has already been made by more than one Member to the speech which was delivered by the Hon. Minister the other day. I do not wish to make any comments on that but for his information I would like to point out that delhi was the headquarters of the All-India Dalitodhar Sabha, even before the congress had included the removal of disabilities of the depressed classes in its programme in 1921. This Sabha was founded by the late Revered Swami Shraddhanand. It was he who had moved the resolution in 1920 in Calcutta Session of the Congress to include the removal of disabilities of Harijans in the Congress programme. Even earlier in his address as Chairman of the reception committee of the Indian National Congress session held at Amritsar after the Jallianwala Bagh tragedy, he had raised the question of the disabilities of the Harijans and had persuaded the Congress to recognise its importance. It would have been in the fitness of things if the Hon. Minister who undoubtedly has worked for the uplift of Harijans and holds a very high place as a Harijan leader, had recognised this fact. But unfortunately his policy and his angle of vision have been quite different. If I were to refer to the history of the struggle for the uplift of the Harijans in Delhi........
Mr. Chairman : I would invite the attention of the hon. Member to the fact that, when the hon. Speaker was in the