z:\ ambedkar\vol-02\vol2-08.indd MK SJ+YS 21-9-2013/YS-8-11-2013 594
594 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
graph as he proposes. We take the risk and know it may not be a practical proposition, but as you have said on a previous occasion, we cannot always be logical when we are aiming at an ideal.
Dr. Ambedkar: I am particularly anxious that the Police and the Military should be mentioned, because those are the Departments for which the members of the depressed classes would be most fit.
Chairman: The point is covered by paragraph (5) ( a ) and ( b ) .
Dr. Ambedkar: In that way the question of the Anglo-Indian community is also included. I propose a new clause to follow clause (4). “The Sub-Committee desires that a generous policy be adopted in the matter of the employment of the depressed classes: in the Public Services, and in particular recommends that the recruitment to the Police and Military Departments, from which they are now excluded, should be thrown open to them.”
Raja Narendra Nath : I have a suggestion to make, namely, that we should add : “No person shall be under disability or shall be prejudiced in any way for admission to any Service of the country merely by religion, caste or sex.” I would have that as a special recommendation.
Dr. Ambedkar: That will come later.
Mr. Basu: I sympathise with Dr. Ambedkar’s desire to see the disabilities under which his community suffers removed, and if there is in any Province any disability laid down by administrative rules, those rules should be done away with. But the way in which he has put this statement makes it much too general. For instance, in my Province, a great many posts are filled by members of the depressed classes. This is not a matter which greatly concerns my Province.
Dr. Ambedkar: I am prepared to insert some limiting words such as, “where they are at present excluded”
Raja Narendra Nath: There is no rule debarring their employment in the Police, but in practice they are not employed. Once a question was raised by a Member of the Council asking the Government why these people were not recruited for the Police and whether the practice was not in contravention of Section 96 of the present Government of India Act; the reply was not satisfactory. I think the addition of the words which I have suggested will help, and that also the expression of a general desire and general recommendation will also help. But let me tell you that the expression of a general sentiment would not be so effective as the insertion of the words which I have suggested.
Major Stanley: A specific reference to the Military Service is surely outside the scope of this Committee.
Mr. Mody: We have recommended that the requirements of the Army should be borne in mind.
Chairman: I suggest you would make it slightly less controversial if you said this, “And in particular recommend that the recruitment to all Services should be thrown open to them.”
Mr. Mody: Yes, from which they are now excluded.