Madras, April 16: Dr. N.A. Palkhivala, eminent Constitutional lawyer, to-day appealed to the people of Tamil Nadu to fight against certain features of the Anti-Defection Bill, which he described as a “monstrous outrage on the Constitution.”
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The Bill which sought to amend the Constitution would curtail the freedom to vote and the best way to commemorate Rajaji’s memory was to resist it till the very end, he said, inaugurating the Rajaji Memorial Lectures organised by the Mylapore Academy. The most objectionable feature of the Bill was that any Member of Parliament or a State legislature who did not vote according to the instruction of his party whip would lose his membership of the House. This would curtail the freedom of voting and prevent a member from following the dictates of his conscience.
Mr. Palkhivala said Rajaji’s outstanding achievement was to give a momentum to the principle of rule of law which was essential if democracy and freedom were to survive. To him, the basic freedoms were even more important than the democratic form of government and he had pointed out that a tyrannical law would not cease to be tyrannical merely because it was passed by the elected representatives of the people.
As an administrator Rajaji had few equals. He was a genuine socialist who lived a simple life and did not, as many in power now did, speak of his love for the poor in public while he himself lived a life of luxury. He was completely disenchanted with populist economic policies which went by the name of socialism but had no foundation in economics.