Then, Sir, the whole argument of all those who have opposed the amendment has centered around the question of the acquisition of the Zamindari. These friends unfortunately have either ignored knowingly or failed to appreciate that this compensation clause does not cover Zamindari alone. It covers the whole field of movable and immovable property in the country,–in the Union or in the Units. It may be necessary in the larger interest of the country at a later stage even to acquire “Kashtakari”, i.e., tenants’ lands. If you want to introduce cooperative farming or communal farming, it may be necessary to acquire even the tenants’ lands. Would you deny them a just compensation? A proposition therefore like this which covers such a wide field-not merely Zamindari but even commercial interests and so many other interests, must, I submit, be placed beyond all doubts and suspicions. If I may submit, Sir, the right to private property and the protection of private property are the acceptance of the principle of right over might. You may choose to do away with it if you like, but we shall then all slowly drift towards jungle laws rather than good laws meant to keep society together. Some friends have also referred to the fact that certain zamindars got all their property for anti-national work during 1857 Revolution. The Hon’ble Mover of the amendment has questioned this remark. I will go a little further and submit that these hon’ble friends have probably incomplete knowledge of the Zamindari system and therefore it is that they have come to the conclusions that many or most of the Zamindars acquired their property as a gift after the 1857 Revolution. They forget that in certain parts of the country the Permanent Settlement Act was enacted as early as 1793 much before the 1857 Revolution. It cannot be said of them that they got their Zamindari because of certain anti-national work. There may have been some people, whose conduct may not have been such as one would like, but you are dealing with a community and not individuals. You are dealing with the whole land problem, and when you are doing that, it is essential that the whole question and the entire picture must be within your consideration. There are also a large number of people who have paid good money and purchased Zamindari–not a hundred years before as some think. Zamindaris have been bought and sold every day. People have bought Zamindari only this year by paying good money, earned money which they have accumulated as their life’s savings. Who does not know that until only a few years ago our main investment out of our savings was only in lands? It will certainly be unfair not to give them compensation–and a compensation which is just and fair. My suggestion, Sir, to the Hon’ble the Mover of the main clause and to the Mover of the amendment will be that the word “compensation” itself means “just and fair, compensation”. Compensation cannot be, in my opinion, unjust and unfair, and I submit that if the Hon’ble Mover of the main clause feels precisely as I do, that compensation means just and fair compensation, then my advice to the Hon’ble the Mover of the amendment would be that he need not press his amendment.
