Coming to the amendment I wish to point out that, as far as I understand it, the amendment of my honourable Friend, Prof. K. T. Shah implies that a person who wishes to stand for the presidentship of the Indian Republic should resign his seat if he happens to be a Minister, or resign his seat if he happens to be a Member of the Legislature. An honourable Member from my province of Bihar has just spoken and he has stated that the law in his province is that a Member of a Legislature who wishes to become the President of the Provincial Congress Committee has to resign his office. There was vehement opposition to this. I entirely agree with the opposition that is not the law. We find here that that the last President of the Congress, Mr. Kripalani, was also a Member of this House and a Member of the Dominion Parliament. Here we find that the Honourable the Speaker of the U. P. is a member of this House. This is not the kind of thing in Bihar. Since the Congress started its activities under the guidance of Mahatma Gandhi, Dr. Rajendra Prasad, the President of this House, was the President of the Provincial Congress Committee for a number of years. It is unfortunate that he had to leave our Province and come over to Delhi. When he came to Delhi and left Bihar somebody who was not a member of the legislature was elected as President and he died. Then we elected a member of the Provincial Assembly and he had to resign his seat in the Assembly. We wanted him to resign and he resigned. Afterwards another member of the provincial assembly was elected and he also had to resign his seat in the Assembly. So we in Bihar have this convention, though not as a law or rule, that a member of the legislature when he wants to become President, before he seeks election he must resign. It is a very good and healthy convention. After all the first President of the Indian Republic will be the first gentleman of this land and equal to any monarch in the world. We want that before he becomes President he should cease to have any connection with any legislature. Before his election as President a Minister, whether at the Centre or in the Provinces, must cease to be a minister: he must come in as a simple man, a non-member of any legislature, stand for election and get elected. That is what people want. This is a very simple amendment and it should be accepted by the House and by Dr. Ambedkar. That is all I have to submit to the House and I thank you, Sir, for permitting me to speak.
