z:\ ambedkar\vol-02\vol2-10.indd MK SJ+YS 21-9-2013/YS-8-11-2013 741
EVIDENCE : WING COMMANDER A. W. H. JAMES AND ANOTHER 741
dependent upon their votes, and may be amenable to their wants ?
Dr. J. H. Hutton: An odd vote or two would not be likely to affect a Minister.
D263. Dr. B. R. Ambedkar: I do not say one or two. You may have a small number, but, assuming they have adequate representation in the Legislature, would not the Minister be dependent upon their votes, and, therefore, he might be more amenable to their wants ?
Dr. J. H. Hutton : Theoretically, but not in practice. Their numbers would be so small.
Dr. B. R. Ambedkar: In politics a single vote might turn the balance.
D264. Lord Eustace Percy: I thought Dr. Hutton’s recommendation was that they should be excluded from the purview not only of the Province but of the Governor also, and that they should be administered from the centre. Is not that so?
Dr. J. H. Hutton: That is what I should, on the whole, prefer. I have stated in my memorandum that in the case of the proposals of the White Paper for the totally excluded areas in which the Governor acts as the agent of the Governor-General, the White Paper proposal is satisfactory. I do not say I should prefer it.
D265. Lord Eustace Percy: I thought from your proposals for setting up petty States that you intended that it should as far as possible be a central function ?
Dr. J. H. Hutton: My intention was that it should be central as far as possible, certainly.
D266. Dr. B. R. Ambedkar: Even in that case, the criticism I have offered would be equally applicable even if the subject was made central, because the Governor would have to certify the amount necessary for the administration of the subject and, if the Ministers in the Central Government objected to spending that amount of money, the conflict would still be there; it would only be transferred from the Provincial Field to the Central Field ?
Dr. J. H. Hutton: I am assuming the Minister would not have a word in it.
Dr. B. R. Ambedkar: But my point is that the Minister would have a word, because there would be other rival claims for the expenditure, and a Minister cannot be expected to be interested in primitive peoples who are not part of the Legislature.
Dr. Shafa’at Ahmad Khan: Would not the representatives of the primitive people in the Legislature generally combine with the depressed classes ?
D267. Dr. B. R. Ambedkar: That is what I am visualising, and, therefore, they would have many friends.
Dr. J. H. Hutton: I do not think the representation would be affected.
D268. Dr. B. R. Ambedkar: If I felt as pessimistic as you feel I should