544 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
the Congress and how many against the Congress. This can be judged from the results of the Primary elections only and not from the results of the final elections. For in the Primary election only the Untouchables vote. If the results of the Primary elections are taken as a basis, the decision of the Cabinet Mission, would be found to be absurd and contrary to facts. For only 28 per cent of the votes polled in the Primary elections were cast in favour of the Congress and 72 per cent against it.
- It is said if the Untouchables felt that they were not in the Congress they should have had a Primary election for every one of the 151 seats reserved for them. As a matter of fact, there were Primary elections for 43 scats only all throughout India. Why did the Untouchables not stage a Primary election for the rest of the
108 seats ?
The argument is absurd for the following reasons:—
(i) Primary election is not obligatory. It becomes obligatory only when there arc more than four candidates contesting one scat. It is not realized that anyone who stands for Primary election must also face the necessity of having to stand for final election. The inability of the Untouchables to bear the expense of double election make it very difficult to induce members of the Untouchable communities to stand for Primary election. The fact that there have been Primary elections only for 43 scats cannot be made the basis for the inference that the Untouchables do not claim to be separate from the Congress.
(ii) It is the Congress who must be asked as to why it did not put up 4 candidates in every constituency in the Primary elections. For if the Congress claims to represent the Untouchables, it should have put up more than 4 candidates on Congress ticket in every constituency and brought about Primary elections in each of the 151 constituencies and ousted every other party from coming into the final election. The Congress did not do this. On the other hand, even in the 43 Primary elections, the Congress put up only one candidate in each constituency on the off-chance of his coming within the first 4 and then getting him returned in the Final Election with the Hindu votes. This shows that the Congress knew that the Untouchables had no confidence in the Congress.
(iii) It is only in 1937 that the Untouchables for the first time got their right to vote. It is only after 1937 that the Untouchables