My Friend Mr. Saksena comes forward with his amendment. His amendment-he will pardon me so characterising–it is the position of those who have. You damn, you condemn the system as vicious and do nothing to wipe off the miseries that accrue out of the past sins committed by an alien rule. Therefore, it will be unfair if you claim and have the benefits and advantages of the system to continue and thus have it both ways. You cannot have it both ways. Sir, this levy of jute duty and the allocation of it to the provinces has a history of its own. I have already stated that the enquiry of the Federal Finance Committee found that Bengal, Bihar, Orissa and Assam were very hard hit and no action was taken to relieve the distress. Just before Sir Otto Niemeyer was coming to India to conduct his enquiry, the then Provincial Governor of Bengal in his famous speech he delivered at the St. Andrew’s Day Dinner stated that he spoke this on behalf of himself and his Ministry and he made a claim that he cannot run the provincial administration of Bengal unless he gets two crores of rupees. Curious it is that a Noble Lord, such as be, hurled a criticism on the British Imperialism stating that the Province of Bengal cannot be held responsible for the sins or commissions and commissions done by the Centre viz., the system of land lordism that was devised for Bengal. He stated that the Permanent Settlement has deprived Bengal from an annual revenue of four to five crores. Having done that it is for the British Government to make good the deficits of Bengal. Therefore, he, among other things, claimed two crores as the minimum necessary for his own province. Other provinces also placed their own demands. The result was, as I have stated, other provinces got a good share of jute duty along, with Bengal.
