MUSLIMS HAVE FARED MUCH BETTER....... 349
select 13. Out of the 13 there was only one Muslim whom we could select.
Nawabzada Liaquat Ali Khan : Out of 40 names.
The Honourable Dr. B.R. Ambedkar : Yes. The names were given in order of merit and we had only 13 posts. Obviously we had to stop with the 13. If we had stopped with the 13, there was only one Muslim in that list of 13. As I said, these posts are technical posts and therefore we had to be very certain about the qualification. If the Labour Department had stuck to their original proposition that they shall only take men recommended by the Federal Public Service Commission on a purely meritorious basis, they would have had only one Muslim Candidate but the Labour Department knowing that tills would not be satisfactory from the point of view of the Muslims went down the list and picked 3 candidates who were far below 13 in order to make up their quota of 4. Another thing we have done and which I know some people might regard as very improper is this. We found that in the office of the Director General of Geological Survey there were no Muslim officers. What did we do. We selected two Muslim students from the University represented by my Honourable friend Sir Zia Uddin Ahmed.....
Dr. Sir Zia Uddin Ahmad : The credit does not go to you.
The Honourable Dr. B.R. Ambedkar : They were not geologists by their training. They had qualified themselves only in geography but notwithstanding this we selected two. We trained them so that they may be subsequently, recruited to the office of the Geological Survey.
Now, Sir, I come to the School of Mines. There were some questions in the last Assembly on that.
May I know, Sir, how much more time I have.
Mr. President : The Honourable Member can have 20 minutes. I am prepared to give him more time if necessary. He can go on till 1/15.
Shri Sri Prakasa (Benares and Gorakhpur Divisions—NonMuhammadan Rural): You can take 25 per cent of the time.
The Honourable Dr. B.R. Ambedkar : I do not wish to deal with this subject in that half-philanthropic and half-flippant manner that my friend has done.