Sir so much has been said in favour of and against joint electorates and separate electorates during the last three decades that I do not think it is possible for anyone to add any new argument for or against them. However, I feel that it is my duty to point out one very serious objection which was urged against separate electorates. The objection was that it has helped a third party. Fortunately for us all that third Party is no more here. Should we really visualise the situation as it stands today in its true perspective, much of the suspicion that hangs round this system of separate electorates will disappear. After all, if they are conceded to us, what will happen to this great majority? Today there is no third party to whom we can appeals have been witnessing things here. If anything happens in East Punjab or if there is any untoward incident in Delhi itself we cannot go to the Governor-General or to any one else. We have to go to Sardar Patel, because he has become the final arbiter of the fate of the minorities. What use is then that people should cite history, which history is as dead as bones? Surely, there were very serious objection. Rightly or wrongly the Muslims did not realise that separate electorates were the cause of dividing communities. But today those arguments do not hold Mod. If you conceded separate electorates, the Muslim community feels that they will help in returning their true representatives, representatives who will lay before you–not to any other power, not to any other Government, not even to Pakistan–our grievances and our claims, therefore I beg of you and beg of this House to consider the new situation in which this question is being discussed.
