*[Mr. President, I thought it to be a simple matter, and therefore the speech I made, while moving the motion, was also simple. Even now I regard it as simple. One of our Honourable members has objected to it as being sectarian. If you regard it as sectarian simply because of my beard then it is a different thing; otherwise there is nothing as such in it. If a demand for two additional seats for Sikhs and two for the Hindus is enough to make a motion communal then why not apply the same criterion to Mr. Ayyangar’s resolution regarding giving of one additional seat to Muslims and one to Hindus in West Bengal? You have, not taken it to be, sectarian. I have no objection to what has been said with regard to reducing of Muslim representation in East Punjab. At present, Punjab’s case is a special one. I am obliged to say that only those, who have suffered can realise and not the others. Punjab has gone through agony. Punjabis, who have suffered terribly and whose problems are before the Government will prove of much assistance in solving them, because all this has happened before their very eyes. The proposal which Begum Sahiba and Nawab Sahib have just put for the postponement of this question for the present is likely to injure the feelings of Punjabis. Therefore, I appeal to the House to accept my motion. Giving of additional representation would greatly assuage the feelings of those who have gone through terrible happenings. Not only that; it will also lessen to some extent the difficulties which our Government has to face daily in this connection. Our ministers, who are very busy with work, get respite neither in the day nor in the night. It is because that the tales of the people coming are so Cull of woe and are so heart-rending. Sir Zafarullah has said in the United Nations Organisation that his house was burnt. I do not know whether that is true or not. But here are thousands, or rather lakhs, of people from West Punjab, and any one of them could have told the U. N. O. how his near and dear ones were killed, his house looted and burnt, his daughters and sisters abducted. There are so many things which are beyond description. Nawab Sahib has just said that this question should be postponed, as no correct estimate of the population is available. I believe it is not a question of postponing but of grappling with the problem of Punjab. Among the Punjabis, who were the victims of this terrible disaster, are many old and responsible congress men of the Province. Their houses were burnt, they were killed. To name a few, Sardar Jaswant Singh of Compbellpur, Hukumat Singh President of Gujarat District Congress Committee, Lala Niranjan Dass Bagga, Advocate, President of Gujranwala Congress Committee were killed.]
