Sir, while speaking of the future Constitution of the States I hope you will allow me to say a word about adult franchise on the basis of which members of the Provincial Assemblies will be elected. There is no doubt that property is not a satisfactory basis of franchise. If a man does not pay a tax or does not live in house of a particular rental value, he does not thereby cease to be a citizen. On the contrary perhaps the neglect from which men like him have suffered for generations is a reason why he should enjoy the power to vote and to bring pressure on those on whom the improvement of his condition depends. But we have to consider whether the sudden expansion of the franchise that will be brought about by adult franchise will be helpful to the development of democratic ideas and that sense of discrimination and restraint on which the successful exercise of democracy depends. In the provinces I believe not more than 18 per cent. of the adult population is enfranchised at the present time. In the States mentioned in Part B of the Constitution there is hardly any franchise. In many of them there are hardly any local bodies. It seems to me therefore that to go at one bound from a greatly restricted to universal franchise is not the part of wisdom. Had we graduated the lowering of the franchise so as to bring about adult franchise within a definite period of time–say 15 years–and been content immediately with say, the enfranchisement of between 40 to 50 per cent. of the people, we should probably have allowed less room for demagogy and made it easier both for political parties and individual candidates to meet the electors and educate them; but under the conditions that will prevail under this Constitution, I fear that the education of the electorates will be a needlessly difficult task. All those that have had experience of the ignorance of the electors under the present Constitution will, I hope, agree with me in the view that I have taken of the sudden expansion of the franchise. As, however, it is not possible to change anything in the Constitution before us, let us hope that the political parties in the country and public men ardently desirous of enabling every person to become a responsible citizen will take all possible measures to enable the electorate to understand the duties that it will be called upon to perform and to provide the conditions that will make it possible for the elector to become a self-respecting citizen capable of thinking out, at any rate, the ordinary issues for himself.
