Vol. 17, Part III · pages 481–485

452 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES the audience to be honest in the elections with the party with which they had joined hands. He expressed satisfaction for the satisfactory working of the Samata Sainik Dal and he hoped that they would be of great use in the next general elections. He said that he would leave Bombay after 4 days, and it would not be possible for him to appear before them again. He asked to give their votes to the candidates of the Scheduled Castes Federation and of the Socialist Party and none of them should remain at home on that day.” 1 zz 1 : Police Report, Source Material, Vol. I, Pp. 388-389.

130 FEDERATION WILL NOT GIVE UP ITS SEPARATE POLITICAL ENTITY Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, who was inaugurating the election campaign of the Scheduled Castes Federation, of which he is the President, at a mammoth public meeting at St. Xavier’s College ground at Parel, on 22nd November 1951, reiterated the charges he had made in that statement and said that he had left the Government in which he had worked for four years because he was convinced that the Congress and the Government were utterly indifferent to the welfare and progress of the Scheduled Castes and Backward Classes. Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, former Law Minister of the Government of India, declared that Mr. Nehru had deliberately evaded answering the charges he had levelled against the Government and the Congress party, because charges were true and unanswerable. Mr. Nehru had many occasions to contradict the statement he had issued when he resigned from the Government last month, but the Prime Minister preferred to remain silent knowing fully well that the charges were indisputable. He had occasions to watch Congress leaders from close quarters and he could now say with confidence that the Congress had no sympathy and love for the Oppressed Backward Classes. He complained that when he was a Minister in the Congress Government he was not only not given charge of portfolios promised by the Prime Minister, but he was shut out from the policy-making Cabinet Committees. As a Minister he could not criticise the policy of the Government nor could he ask any question in Parliament about the Scheduled Castes. Dr. Ambedkar repudiated the charge made against him by some Congressmen that he had played a very insignificant part

454 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES in drafting the Constitution. There could be no greater lie than this, he said, and added that he was prepared to prove by documentary evidence how his colleagues on the Drafting Committee had showed little interest in the drafting of the Constitution. They rarely attended the meetings of the Committee and the whole burden, therefore, fell on him and the Secretary of the Committee. He detailed a long list of instances to show the indifferent attitude of Congress to the grievances of the Scheduled Castes and he said that even the foreign British Government was more sympathetic and generous to them and sincerely worked for their amelioration. Dr. Ambedkar referred to the recent electoral alliance of the Socialist Party and the Federation and called upon Scheduled Castes voters to cast their votes for Socialist and Federation candidates. He was confident that his community would stand solidly behind the alliance and return the candidates put up by the two parties to the legislatures. The alliance, he said, had been entered into a spirit of ‘give and take’ and they must abide by it. However, the Federation would not give up its separate political entity. Dr. Ambedkar was presented with a purse containing collection made from the sale of tickets at the meeting. The amount was not announced.” 1 zz 1 : The Times of India, dated 23rd November 1951.

131 THE HINDU CODE BILL WOULD IMPROVE CONDITION OF WOMEN “Addressing a meeting of women in Bombay on November 24, 1951 Dr. B. R. Ambedkar declared that the Hindu Code Bill would improve the condition of women and give them more rights and requested them to support the Bill and vote for candidates who would bring real democracy in the country. He regreted that some Congressmen were against the bill, trying to delay it some way or other.” 1 zz 1 : The Bombay Secret Abstract, dated 1st December 1951.

132 IT IS BAD FOR PEOPLE TO REMAIN IDLE AND INDIFFERENT “Dr. B. R. Ambedkar in an election meeting in Bombay on Sunday the 25th November 1951, invited Mr. Nehru to leave Congress and “Join hands with socialists and people like me for the good of the country.” More than two lakhs of people gathered at Shivaji Park for the meeting called by the Socialist Party and the Scheduled Castes Federation. The blue star-studded flags of the Federation and the Red flags of the Socialist Party were very much in evidence. Hundreds of volunteers, in blue and red caps of the two parties, regulated the crowd which caused a traffic jam near Shivaji Park. The former Law Minister appealed to the people to vote for him. He said he would fight for United Maharashtra in Parliament if he were elected. The two objectives of his life were the betterment of the Scheduled Castes and good Constitution for the country. Referring to Mr. Nehru’s Chowpatty speech in which the Prime Minister had denied his accusations, Dr. Ambedkar asserted that the Congress had not bettered the condition of the Scheduled Castes and that “the foreign policy of the Government regarding China and Russia is disastrous.” He stated that he had made these charges two and a half months ago when he resigned from the Cabinet, but Mr. Nehru had not taken notice of them and had only come out with his denial after reading Friday’s newspapers which reported his (Dr. Ambedkar’s) repetition. About his differences on foreign policy, Dr. Ambedkar said he had not thought it important enough to make his difference of opinion on a Cabinet issue. Moreover, he was completely absorbed in the more important and laborious work of drafting the Constitution.