550 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
The Minister of Law (Dr. Ambedkar): On Saturday last when I entered upon the reply to the general debate on my motion, I said that although a great many points were raised by those who spoke on my motion there were some which were actually covered by amendments and that it was, therefore, unnecessary in the course of the reply to deal with those points because I felt that a better reply could be given when the motions are moved, and I said that I would therefore, confine myself to such points as were made in the course of the debate which were not covered by any amendment. On going over the amendments I found that there are only three points which are of some substance which were made at which I do not find having been made the subject of any specific amendment. It is therefore to these points that I propose to confine myself.
The first such point was made by Babu Ramnarayan Singh and also by my friend, Prof. Ranga. Both of them complained that according to their experience and information the Ministers of the Governments in various Provinces and States were taking very active part in the election campaign and that they were exercising their authority and their influence in order to serve their own political interests or the interests of the party to which they belonged, and that this kind of a misuse of authority and influence was calculated to result in unfair practice against those who did not belong to their persuasion. The suggestion that they made was that there ought to be a provision in this law calling upon Ministers to resign their offices some time before the actual election commenced. It seems to me that this suggestion has not been examined properly either by my friend Babu Ramnarayan Singh, or by Prof. Ranga, because I have no doubt about it that if they do examine the feasibility of giving effect to such a proposal they will find that it would be more or less imposible to give effect to it. In this connection I would like to point out the provision contained in our Constitution. The Constitution makes the President the head of the State. At the same time the Constitution lays down that the President shall not act except on the advice of what is termed the council of Ministers. Therefore, if the President is to act, it is absolutely essential, according to the Constitution, that there