Babasaheb Dr B.R Ambedkar

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GANDHI AND HIS FAST
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every measure the Ministry may bring and vote with them even
in matters which deeply affect the interests of the community.
“You perhaps remember that at the beginning of the elections
I protested against the Congress Committee setting up candidates
for the panel election among the Depressed Classes. You were
good enough to say that I might allow my community joining
the Congress on certain conditions placed before us by Mr. S.
Satyamurti. One of these conditions was that in matters affecting
their community, the Depressed Class members of the Congress
Party need not vote with the Congress members but vote according
to their judgment.
“The recent debate on the Temple Entry Bill in the Madras
Legislative Assembly has exposed the ugly fact that all Depressed
Class Members driven by the discipline of the Congress Party in the
Assembly voted solidly against my motion for referring the Bill to
a Select Committee. Could anything be more unnatural and more
humiliating, proving as it did the subjugation of my community
by the Caste Hindus represented by Mr. Rajagopalachariar ?
“You know the provisions of the Bill. It was only a piece
of permissive legislation making it possible for a majority of
worshippers of a temple to allow Harijans to worship in the
temple. There was no element of compulsion or coercion in it. This
Bill had your blessing. It was drafted by Mr. Rajagopalachariar
himself and approved by you.
“At a previous session of the Assembly I introduced the Bill
with the consent of Mr. Rajagopalachariar, who promised his full
support to the measure. When I suggested that the Bill might
be introduced by him as a Government measure, he wanted me
to introduce it. When I met him last, on the 12th July 1938 and
informed him that I was giving notice of a motion for referring
the Bill to a Select Committee he did not object.
“I do not know what happened in the meantime but two days
before my motion for referring the Bill to the Select Committee
came up before the house, Mr. Rajagopalachariar sent for me
and quietly asked me to withdraw the Bill, which I refused to
do. When in due course, I moved for the consideration of the
Bill, Mr. Rajagopalachariar stood up and opposed the Bill and
requested me to withdraw it, saying that he would introduce a
Temple Entry Bill on the same lines, only for Malabar and not
for other Districts.
“The effect of Mr. Rajagopalachariar’s speech was to defeat
my motion with my own community men registering their votes
against the measure, introduced to secure their social and religious