I was advised, Sir, yesterday from a high authority, that if I had not taken upon myself this unnecessary task of putting forward amendments to every clause, and if I had concentrated myself on a few principles, I might have proved more useful. Sir, I do not measure the usefulness of my amendments by the number of them which are carried. I measure the usefulness of my amendments merely by the degree of thought and interest or opposition I provoke; and, as such, I feel perfectly satisfied, whether or not they are accepted, if the honourable Members, including Ministers of the Government of India, are given furiously to think in the matter; and have to reply specifically to points of that character. Here, however, Sir, is a case in which I seem to have, whether consciously or unconsciously, accepted and acted up to such an honourable and exalted advice; and appear to have concentrated myself on this principle. On this I have been labouring time and again, from one angle and another. And yet what is the fate? Failure, of course, to persuade the drafting and piloting block to see eye to eye with me. There is no possibility of an effective reply. There is no gainsaying the desirability of the points I am making. And yet not only do I get no reply; the very point I urged is suppressed or blacked out even in the press. And this conspiracy of silence, to say the least, is amazing. I trust on this occasion the silence will be broken; I trust on this occasion I will be given, what has been called “a crushing reply”. And I trust this time, at any rate, the reply will be so crushing that I will cease to put forward, at least to this House, this kind of amendment.
