The Nehru Report and Muslim Rights — Page 130
[ 130 ] trust, and restore normal relations between the com• munities as under this arrangement, the constant fear ' ' of injury to mutual interest will disappear. Further, it is no advantage to any individual candi date, A or B, that the Government has reserved a parti cular seat for the Muslim Community ; because such re servation is for the community as a whole, and not for any particular candidate, who must care for every single vote, and in order to beat his rival, must canvass every member. Therefore, the contention, that the majority would no longer care for a minority falls to the ground. It is the candidate, and not the community, who seeks the votes, and therefore, he must in any case remain dependent on the votes of individual electors. Moreover, there will be his supporters, who for his sake, shall have to care for the vote of every elector, and thus indirectly the whole of the majority party shall have to depend, for the success of their candidates, on the votes of the minority. Reservation of Seats, therefore, does not pre vent, rather it leads to the removal of communal distrust. (iii) In its third objection the Committee argue that Reservation of Seats imposes restrictions on the electors ; and the majority rules the country not as a result of free and open election, but by virtue of the restrictions im posed on the electors by law. Hence, such a system is ·' a negation of representative government,'' and so de feats its end. In my opinion this is a very important political ques tion. If the conclusion arrived at by the Committee ·is right, the whole controversy comes to an end. But, 1 1 think the committee have made a mistake in its judgment. For, the question to be considered is, whether it could be possible for any Muslim to represent a particular view- ---· point which a Hindu could possibly do. If not, then it