Sir, I am not a little surprised at the manner in which my honourable Friend Pandit Lakshmi Kanta Maitra wants to claim what according to me, is not a privilege but licence. We are not trying to claim any thing more then what in the Mother of Parliaments those members in England who have striven for liberty of speech inside and outside the House have claimed and are claiming. Now let him consider one or two aspects. Outside this House Members are not entitled to either speak sedition or make defamatory statements, but inside the Hose itself one many make any statement whatsoever, either attacking the Government or preach violence to overthrow the State or even defamatory statements, If you think it is on the public interest. In the Government of India Act, 1919, seditious statements and libellous defamatory statements were tabooed and were not allowed to be made.
