Mr. Vice-President, when I rose to speak, my first impulse was to support whole-heartedly the amendment moved by Mr. Kamath and even now I have come here with that idea. In the later speeches and amendments, one amendment has been moved byMr. Muhammad Ismail of Madras and I give my full support to it. Besides, I also support the amendment of Mr. K. T. Shah. Mr. Muhammad Ismail in the second part of his amendment has made mention of personal liberty. Mr. K. T. Shah’s amendment is also of similar nature. I shall speak at the end about his amendment. First of all, I would like to give full support to Mr. Kamath’s amendment. Mr. Kamath has said that everyone should have the right to bear arms. This is a test amendment. If Dr. Ambedkar and his committee are honest, then surely they ought to accept this section and include it in the article at once. If he wavers or raises any objection as I know he is capable of doing, as Dr. Ambedkar’s legal abilities are established, and if he wishes, he can turn night into day and day into night and can prove it conclusively,–then I would like to tell him that this is a test amendment and, if you do not include it, it would mean that your tendency is the same as that of the British Government. You know what the Britishers had done. They had promulgated the Arms Act in India. The result was that all the inhabitants of Hindustan were kept as imbeciles. If you also have the same design, then it is a different matter. But if there is any national Government and an Indian Government, then there is no reason why you should deprive anybody of this right. If you too will forge an Arms Act and will deprive the people of this right, then I would say that your attitude and way of doing things is much worse than that of the Britishers. It will be much worse. The Arms Act, enforced by the British Government, was applicable to one and all with the exception of the ruling class. We were under the impression that under our own Government this restriction will be removed. Unfortunately at present here we have a party Government and they want to retain it, so that the Act may be applied against their political opponents and may not be enforced against their own party men.
