344688

Sir, the point of order which I wish to raise is that we cannot work both as the Constituent Assembly and the Legislature of the country together. It will be very anomalous, Sir, because, in all matters of parliamentary routine, we may have to discuss Government policy and naturally when the Government policy is discussed, a Speaker is needed who is neutral and who is not a member of the Government. In the Constituent Assembly, we do not sit as Government, or officials or non-officials; but we sit all as individuals contributing, their best towards the making of the constitution and you preside over our deliberations. If we begin to discuss censure motions and adjournment motions as my honourable friend on the other side has just suggested, we shall have to sit separately in blocks or parties and so many difficulties will arise. We shall have to vote with our parties, and naturally we shall have to divide ourselves into so many disciplined parties. So, the regular routine will all be upset. My suggestion therefore is, if we have to perform both the functions simultaneously, we cannot do all that on the same day, on one fixed day or in one fixed place. We shall have to divide the time and have a time-table. We shall have to announce that on such and such a day we sit as the Constituent Assembly so that we can sit under your Presidentship and carry on business as we have been doing till now. Similarly if we sit as a Dominion Parliament, we should announce our intention, and sit in party blocks and remain loyal to our parties and support the party motions or oppose the opposite ones, while in this case, it is not necessary for us to support motions proposed by the Ministers or others. My submission, therefore, is that we cannot work in the same House under the same President ship both as the Constituent Assembly and also as the Parliament of the country.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *