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726 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
any formal resolution moved in the Bengal Legislative Council in November Session which met immediately after the acceptance of the Poona Pact protesting formally against this. That is what I want to know, was there a. resolution ?
Mr. B. C. Chatterjee: Undoubtedly, I did put in a resolution protesting against the Poona Pact in the November Session, but I was induced to withdraw it by the joint representations of Mr. Rasik Biswas, a member of the Namsudras, an influential member, and Pandit Malaviya, but both of them assured me that they would get Dr. Ambedkar to hold another meeting and to revise the Poona Pact in view of the facts which are placed before them and they repeatedly requested me not to press it to a division in the Council without giving them this chance.
- Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : Was it moved ?
Mr. B. C. Chatterjee : They induced me to withdraw it and on the ground.
- Dr. B. R. Ambedkar: It was not moved ?
Mr. B. C. Chatterjee: I withdrew it.
- Dr. B. R. Ambedkar: It was not moved ?
Mr. B. C. Chatterjee: I say I withdrew it.
- Dr. B. R. Ambedkar: You had given notice of it?
Mr. B. C. Chatterjee: I gave notice of it, and, on the representation of Mr. Rasik Biswas and Pandit Malaviya, I withdrew it. I did not move it.
- Dr. B. R. Ambedkar: In the March Session of 1933, the motion that was discussed was a special motion. The ordinary motion which stood in the name of Mr. Shanti Shekhareswar Ray was not moved ?
Mr. J. Bannerjee: It could not be reached.
- Dr. B. R. Ambedkar: No priority was sought for it ?
Mr. J. Bannerjee: Priority was sought for it but priority could not be obtained. There was no time to reach it. Subsequently a special resolution was moved by me.
- Dr. B. R. Ambedkar: A month after that resolution was passed, in the March Session of 1933 in the Bengal Legislative Council, a public meeting was held in Calcutta in the Albert Hall, on the 21st April, 1933. It was presided over by one Mr. Samal, and that meeting passed a resolution condemning the attitude of the Bengal Legislative Council in protesting against the Poona Pact ?
Mr. J. Bannerjee : Very possibly.
- Dr. B. R. Ambedkar: The proceedings of that Committee are published in full in the “Liberty” of 22nd April, 1933. Is that a fact, or is not?
Mr. B. C. Chatterjee: Very possibly. I do not know myself. I was in England.
- Dr. B. R. Ambedkar: You said that the Bengal Government at the time the Poona Pact was accepted was somewhere in Darjeeling, and that no Hindu was consulted. You said that in answer to Sir Nripendra Sircar?