Because I know; I do not live in the air; I am a man of the people and I know the Hindu mind and also the Muslim mind. Let the nation know it. The Muslims already know that they will not be returned for some time to come, so long as they do not rehabilitate themselves among the masses and assure the rest of the people that they are one with them. They have been separate in every matter for a long time past and in a day you can’t switch over from Communalism to Nationalism. There is a class of Muslims who always went with power and that class can talk in any manner they like, but for the real Muslims it would take some time to switch their mentality from Communalism to Nationalism. This separation and isolation was of their own earning, they have enjoyed its fruits so long; now they should be ready to face set-backs. So the proposal put forward by Mr. Lari seems to me to warrant our consideration. He suggested that we can have cumulative system of votes in a plural constituency. There is no intricacy about it. As against this, the system of representation by the single transferable vote is extremely intricate. This cumulative vote is a very easy affair. Suppose there is a plural constituency of four seats. I have four votes and a Muslims friend has also four votes. I have the liberty either of distributing these four votes to four persons or give all the four votes to one candidate or three to one and one to another or two to one and two to another. I will either distribute or if I so choose I might give all the four votes to a candidate of my choice; and in that manner the minority can also have some say-not only the Muslim minority but even the socialist and the communist minority.
