316 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
employed and how many will be discharged. I would like to point out one or two other circumstances.
The first is this—as I said, in their letter of the 5th of October
1945, they had put forward some fifteen or fourteen demands. A conference was arranged between the Labour Department and the President of the Indian Railwaymen’s Federation, Mr. Gin, in order to assess and find out what exactly were the points which they regrded as fundamental, and I should like to tell the House that although there were fifteen resolutions, only three points were placed before the Labour Department for consideration. The rest of them were regarded by the Railwaymen’s Federation as matters of no consequence. Again when a formal meeting was brought about the Railwaymen’s Federation and the Railway Department, even the three points that were raised before the Labour Department were dropped, and the only point that was taken up was the question of retrenchment. With all respect to the gentlemen who have spoken and to the President of the Railwaymen’s Federation, I must confess my utter inability to understand how, for instance, a question as to how many people should be employed by a particular department, can be treated as a justiciable dispute. I am wailing, as I said, for the president of the Railwaymen’s Federation to evolve out of the negotiations with the Railway Department some point which might be regarded as justiciable, so that the Labour Department may find it is worthwhile to intervene and to persuade that an adjudication be made. Sir, I think that a censure motion is not deserved.
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