PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 551
must be in existence at all times a council of Ministers to advise him. We have not got any such provision as contained in section 93 of the Government of India Act, 1935 where under certain circumstances and in certain contingencies the head of the province, namely the Governor, was permitted to act on his own authority without the advice of the Council of Ministers. We have not got any such provision at all. In fact, the whole of the Government will have to be suspended for the period of three months if this suggestion is to be given effect to. Therefore, from the point of view of the Constitution itself the suggestion made is quite impracticable.
Both the Members, Babu Ramnarayan Singh as well as Prof. Ranga, also referred to the conduct of the civil servants who, they thought, either under the positive directions of the Ministers under whom they are serving or because of their desire to flatter and help and to win the goodwill of the Ministers under whom they are serving, were engaged in political activities in which they ought not to engage. I am very sorry to hear of that. If the fact as alleged by either one of them is true, it undoubtedly indicates a great deal of demoralization in the civil servants. It is all the more regrettable because we have taken ample pains in the Constitution and the rules that have been framed thereunder, to give the civil servants the utmost security in the matter of the tenure of their posts in the promotion to which they are entitled to and all the other privileges as to salaries etc. All that was done with the definite intention of giving the civil servants the security which it is necessary for them to have in order to be independent in the matter of administration. if, notwithstanding the security that has been given to them, the civil servants are not standing up to the best of their traditions, all that I can say is this that there has been a great demoralization. But I do not know what remedy one could adopt. As the Bible says. “If the Salt has lost its Savour wherewithal shall it be salted ?” If the civil servants have lost their salt. I do not know how they could be salted. I think we must depend upon the general improvement in the mind of our people as a whole that there are certain moral principles to which we must adhere in the course of our public life.