PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 721
be very careful about becoming over-enthusiastic in the matter of attending the provisions of this Bill. My hon. friend Pandit Thakur Das Bhargava was the only member who touched upon this aspect of the matter, though very briefly. That was a point that ought to have been greately emphasized. The reason why the Constitution incorporated this provision in Article 102 was a very substantial one. It was intended to protect the independence of Parliament and consequently Members of Parliament should be very jealous in extending the provisions of Article 192, so that the public outside may not criticise them for engaging in a certain kind of—I hope Members will forgive me—jobbery. We have got to look at it from that point of view. It is quite true that whenever a Member is appointed to a committee he is doing a certain service to the country.
An Hon. Member: Is it jobbery ?
Dr. Ambedkar: It has all aspects about it. From the point of view of the Member, it is no doubt a service that he renders. From the point of view of the opposition, if there is one, it might have another aspect. The opposition might very legitimately contend that the Government is extending the provisions of the office of profit rule in order to collect a lot of people to support it whenever support is wanted. Therefore, as I said, while there are difficulties in the provision contained in Article 102 and they should be solved in order that no serious handicap will be placed in the way of Government having the advice of members on committees whenever Members of Parliament are appointed to such committees and also in order that Members of Parliament may not be debarred from offering service to Government through committees,—while we have to do this, we have to be careful to see that the provisions are not made a temple, the doors of which are very wide and where anybody can enter. I must, I think, utter this caution in the interest of the House.
Subject to that, I think there is a certain amount of misunderstanding about what the Bill does and also the basis of the Bill. I am very sorry to say that I did not present my case clearly, because Members of Parliament have not