Sir, the idea I have in my mind, when I move this amendment to the amendment moved by Dr. Ambedkar is this. Since the Council of States is going to represent the States, it is but fair to the States units that these units should be dealt with as units and every unit is equally represented. Otherwise, there is no sense in saying that the States shall be represented in the Council of States. In fact, in the United States of America and in other countries where there are second chambers, representing the interests of the States, the representation given to these units is always the same. We also know that the elected members of our Council of States will be returned by the Lower House of the State Assemblies, and if we say that the election will be in some other form, either in proportion to their population or on some other basis and yet people with the same qualification, the Council of States will serve no real purpose, except a purpose of unnecessary duplication of the House of the People. In fact, the House of the People itself will be representative of the people of the States themselves, because the States will be sending in either representatives to the House of the People on almost the same basis. Therefore, if we do not accept this principle, that of taking every State as an equal unit, and sending in their representatives to safeguard or protect their special interests, there is no sense or meaning in having a Second Chamber to represent the States. Though we have Schedule III-B, the position, I feel, should be made clearer that the Council of States will be representative of the State interests, and therefore the States, as States, and as autonomous units, must be equally represented. On this ground, I suggest that the allocation of seats to the representatives of the State in the Council of States should be on the basis of equal representation to each of the component States, the number of which representation shall in no case be more than three. Why I fix upon the figure three is this. I feel that if three members come from every State, that will be sufficient to safeguard the special interests of the States, and their problems. After all, this is to be a sobering House, a reviewing House, a House standing for quality and the members will be exercising their right to be heard on the merits of what they say, for their sobriety and knowledge of special problems; quantity, that is, their number, is not of much moment, and I think three is just sufficient for the purpose.
