Mr. President, Sir, I have come here to support the Amendment moved by the Drafting committee, and that too for very good reasons. I am not able to agree with my Friend Pandit Kunzru when he says. “Either you should have no Second Chamber at all, or if you must have one, you should make it very powerful.” As I said the other day, I am not in favour of Second Chambers at all. I wish the House had been in favour of having only single chambers in the provinces. But it so happens that the House has decided in favour of having Second Chambers in certain provinces. Now, if we are to have Second Chambers at all, then the question is, what sort of chambers are they to be? Are they to be empowered to such an extent as to be able effectively not only to delay but to frustrate the legislative effort and achievements of the Lower Chamber? Now, I am sure the House is unanimous on this point that the Upper Chamber can only be expected to play the part of a counselling chamber, as a moderating chamber, as a delaying chamber, and nothing more. Now, that itself is bad enough, according to us. But even if we agree to this concession, surely it will be wrong to give so much power to the Upper Chamber as to make the legislative effort of the Lower Chamber more or less nugatory and useless. Why do you want six months? If you are to have any time, why should you not be satisfied with three months? My honourable Friend Pandit Kunzru, says that in three months it would not be possible for the Upper Chamber to give serious consideration and attention to the issues involved, and to the various clauses of any given Bill. Very well. What is the real position? The Lower Chamber has already given serious consideration to the particular measure and passed it on to the Second Chamber. It has passed it section by section, every bit of it, after careful consideration. The principle involved has been accepted by the Lower Chamber. And it is the Lower Chamber which is really responsible to the people as a whole, and so it must be expected to be the final authority so far as the principle is concerned. It is only with regard to the detailed manner in which the principle is to be embodied in legislative form that the Upper Chamber can be expected to come in. Under these circumstances, why should it be necessary to give the Upper Chamber more than three months? Surely even as a practical proposition one ought to be willing to agree to give not more than three months. And we should realise that even to give three months to delay is sometimes very dangerous indeed. We are passing through times when – and in times to come it is likely to be much more so – it will be necessary to pass legislation expeditiously in order to stave off more dangerous social upheavals, and in order to prevent people from unnecessarily agitating themselves at the instigation of certain interested people, people who are interested in upsetting the social order and social organisation in any country. Therefore, Sir, I plead with the House to give support to the Drafting Committee in its suggestion that the period should not be more than three months.
