p.s.deshmukh

Dr. P. S. Deshmukh: We have got to take count of the fact that the stages of advancement of the various communities in India vary a great deal. why have we proposed reservations in the case of the scheduled Castes? That is because we have been convinced that there have been insurmountable obstacles in their progress. why have we proposed reservations for the tribal people ? That is also for the same reason. There are also, in the same manner as the tribal people and the scheduled Castes, millions of people in our country whose handicaps and obstacles are in no way different form those of the tribal people and the scheduled castes; and I wish to leave room for such people to come in and inequalities resulting form the present systems rectified. I say this because it is for the first time in the history of the country that the real representatives of the people are going to govern the country hereafter, and therefore their hands should not be fettered. It should be possible for the elected State legislatures and the elected Parliament-elected on the basis fixed by this very House, with its very limited franchise, for even here there are not many people who represent all that the masses of India think and feel-let these future State legislatures and Parliament have the power to make changes in the conditions for the recruitment of the services. It is no use copying the phraseology or immitating the ideology of the British. These will not suit as here in India. India has not become England, and it is no use copying England. There the whole, people has progressed together, similarly and simultaneously; not so in India. Even today more than 85 per cent. of the people of India are without the facilities for education as they live in the villages, and we are asking these people to compete with people who have there facilities near by. This is quite impossible. It is like having a one-mile race between two persons one of whom had already gone ahead half-a-mile, and another who had yet to start. That is quite unequal, unfair and unjust; and if you persist in this injustice. and in this unfairness. then I am sure it is not going to be beneficial to us. These are all important matters that are provided for in article 286. They relate, firstly, to methods of recruitment; secondly, to principles to be followed in making appointments as well as promotions and transfers; thirdly, to all disciplinary matters affecting a person and including memorials and petitions; fourthly, to any claim by or in respect of a person who is serving or has served under the Government or the Government of State or under the Crown in a civil capacity; and lastly, to claim to pensions etc. It is clear that the whole field of recruitment and allied issues are to be determined by the Public Service Commission so as to preclude even if Parliament or the State legislatures want to change any of the above conditions, in any way. I do not say that it should be left altogether vague, but I only say that the Legislatures or the Parliament should be in a position to alter these various tings whenever and wherever they want to do so. It is apparent, Sir, that we want to clothe with every possible power the President of the Union. Here also in this proviso we find that the President is empowered to keep back any cases which he in his discretion thinks need not go to the Commission. I wish rather that we gave this power to the Parliament and to the State, Legislatures and not to an individual. Sir, there is also another amendment which with your permission I wish to move, which is of course, more or less in the same strain and in furtherance of the same objective as the one I have already moved; but it proposes a particular and a specific provision in article 286.