PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 521
hon. Members know, Dr. Johnson, the author of the first English Dictionary, defined a political pensioner as a slave of the Government. But he himself subsequently accepted a pension from Government. It is no use being too logical.
Dr. Parmar: Are political pensioners debarred from the House of Commons ?
Dr. Ambedkar : No, only Peers and lunatics, as they used to say in the days of the Reforms.
The third point raised in the Minutes of Dissent relates to the reservation of seats to the Scheduled Castes in doublemember constituencies. This point is dealt with at considerable length by Mr. Sarangdhar Das and Mr. Rama Rao. It seems to me that this matter has already been concluded by the Representation of the People Act of 1950 which this House passed last year. A reference to section 6, sub-section (2), clause ( d ) of that Act would show that the House left this matter for the President to decide in an appropriate case. I therefore, do not think that we can do anything now, unless we go back and amend that Act.
Apart from that, I should like to draw the attention of the House to certain considerations which have prevailed upon the Government in making the sort of reservations which have been made. I think it necessary to draw a distinction between what may be called a reserved constituency and a constituency in which a seat is reserved. I think these are two very different things and the question that has to be considered is what was the intention, whether it was to adopt the system of a reserved constituency or a system of a constituency in which a seat is reserved. There again, it seems to me, if you refer to the intentions of the Constituent Assembly, the matter is more or less concluded. The first point is this. Our friends will remember—I shall refer to it presently that the Constituent Assembly passed a Resolution in favour of what is called distributive voting. Now, my submission is this. Would there have been any necessity to pass a Resolution regarding distributive voting unless it was the intention of the Constituent Assembly that the constituency should be one in which a seat is reserved ? If the intention was that it should