Babasaheb Dr B.R Ambedkar

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GANDHI AND HIS FAST
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untouchables made by the Congress to fill the seats reserved for the
Untouchables was a most cowardly and a blackguardly act.
It was open to the Congress—which is simply a political surname
for Hindus—to allow the Untouchables the benefits of more seats than
those fixed for them by the Poona Pact. They could have done that
by adopting untouchable candidates to contest general seats. There
was nothing in law to prevent them from doing so. The Congress did
nothing of the kind. This shows that if no seat had been reserved to
the Untouchables, the Hindus would never have cared to see that an
untouchable was returned to the legislature. On the other hand when
seats were reserved, the Hindus came forward to spoil the effect of the
reservation by seeing to it that the seats went to such untouchables as
agreed to be their slaves.
Thus there has been a tragic end to this fight of the untouchables
for political rights. I have no hesitation in saying that Mr. Gandhi is
solely responsible for this tragedy.
Mr. Gandhi’s cry against the Communal Award on the ground that
it prescribed separate electorates was absolutely false and if the Hindus
had not become maddened by his fast they would have seen that it was
so. The Communal Award had also a provision for joint electorates in
addition to separate electorates. The second vote given to the Untouchables
was to be exercised in a general electorate in the election of a Caste
Hindu candidate. This was undoubtedly a system of joint electorates.
The difference between the Communal Award and the Poona Pact does
lie in the nature of electorates. Both provide for joint electorates. The
difference lies in this, joint electorate of the Communal Award was
intended to enable the Untouchables to take part and influence the
election of the Caste Hindu candidate while the joint electorate of the
Poona Pact is intended to enable the caste Hindus to take part and
influence the election of the Untouchable candidates. This is the real
difference between the two.
What would a friend of the Untouchables wish? Would he support
the joint electorates of the Communal Award or the joint electorates of
the Poona Pact ? There can be no doubt that the real salvation of the
Untouchables lies in making the Hindus dependent upon the suffrages of
the Untouchables. This is what the Communal Award did. To make the
Untouchables depend upon the suffrages of the Hindus is to make them
the slaves of the Hindus which they already are. This is what the Poona
Pact does. The Communal Award was intended to free the Untouchables
from the thraldom of the Hindus. The Poona Pact is designed to place
them under the domination of the Hindus.