Madhusudan_Das

20 Madhusudan Das :
by the Council and reluctantly by Mr. Das also. He was in favour
of either full salary or no salary at all but that position was not
acceptable to the council. Mr. Das agreed to the reduction in order
to accommodate his brother-minister, the late Sir Fakhruddin, and
subsequently resigned his post on account of his conviction. He was
of opinion that the Minister should be fully paid to maintain his dignity
or he should be a Minister of the type of Vidoor and Chanakya. As
the Council did not accept his view, he very rightly tendered his
resignation to save the position of Sir Fakhruddin. I do not know
when his ideal will be attained. Ministers in ancient India felt pride
in their poverty but India of today is quite different and the post of
the Minister is coveted on account of its high salary.
Mr. Das immediately after his appointment took up the
amendment of the Municipal Act and the Local Self-Government Act,
the materials for which were being collected for some time past. The
task was a very heavy one ; Mr. Das as a lawyer and accustomed
to labour on briefs was competent for the work. The Bill was introduced
in the Council and was circulated for public opinion. Mr. Das carefully
examined the public view as expressed in the Council and also outside
and made the draft Bills as liberal as practicable. I was one of the
members of the Select Committee of the Local Self-Government Bill
and am fully aware that he was in favour of investing local bodies
with full powers of control over their administration. When the Bill
was taken up for consideration in the Council, I took active part in
proposing amendments most of which were accepted. Mr. Das took
very lively interest in liberalising the provisions of the Bills. Both
the Municipal and local Self-Government Acts are monuments of his
work in the council and of his ideals of the liberty of the people.
They were the first liberal Acts passed in India in the Reformed
Council. I have had, as a Minister, to deal with both the Acts for
a number of years. No doubt there are defects and sometimes
considerable difficulty is felt in dealing with local bodies which do
not observe the provisions of the law ; still I must admit that the
liberal spirit of Mr. Das is noticed everywhere.
Mr. Das as Minister preferred efficiency to economy .His idea
was that economy sometimes affects efficiency. This was considerably
noticeable during the Retrenchment Committee meetings and other
debates in the Council. He was also in favour of freedom of the