522 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
be a reserved constituency, no such question would have arisen, because the system of one man one vote would have applied. Secondly, although the Constitution does not expressly make any reference to this matter, the intention of the makers of the Constitution and of the Constituent Assembly appears to be clear by a reference to article 332, clause (5). My friend Mr. Chaliha must be very familiar with that article. The House will recall that a contention was raised whether a constituency should be reserved for the tribal area so that in that area only a tribal candidate would stand. On the other side the question was raised that if a constituency was so framed that only a tribal candidate could stand, the rest of the non-tribal people would be completely disfranchised. And that was not a desirable thing, the Assembly decided. Consequently in passing article 332(5) they made the special provision that if such a thing was to be done, then certain areas in which the non-tribal people were concentrated should be separated and given separate representation. I therefore concludes, from the fact that the Constituent Assembly supported distributive voting and from the fact that there is a provision in article
332, clause (5), that the intention of the Constituent Assembly was that the system to be ordinarily adopted is the system of a seat being reserved in a constituency. It was on this construction of these provisions that the Representation of the People Act, 1950, contained the provision which is embodied in section 6, sub-section (2), clause ( d ) .
With regard to the question of distributive voting, there again both my friends Pandit Kunzru and Mr. Das have expatiated at considerable length in the vicious character of this system. As I said, it is quite open to argue that the cumulative system is better in that it enables minorities, social or political, to muster their strength and have their representative elected to the House. As I said just now, we have not got a clean slate to act upon. As my friend will remember this matter was discussed in the Constituent Assembly and a motion was moved by no less a person than the late Sardar Patel, in which he proposed that all special representation for all minorities, such as the Muslims,