460 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
As regards the origin of this Bill I must say that the provision for the representation of Scheduled Castes in the Part C States was contemplated long, long ago. Even though the Constitution was framed by the greatest jurists and lawyers including the Hon. Law Minister, it is a matter of surprise that they completely forgot to include representation for the Scheduled Castes in the Part C States at the proper stage.
There was a lot of heart-searching and there were lot of constitutional difficulties to overcome with regard to the formulation of this Bill which seeks to give representation to the Scheduled Castes of the Part C States. There was controversy as to whether this Bill was a proper measure or not and an hon. Member even spoke yesterday in this House sounding a discordant note to the effect that there should not be any reservation of seats for the Scheduled Castes in Part C States. As for myself, I have believed and used to say even from my school days that the reservation of seats and other kinds of reservations are no panacea to the ills under which the Scheduled Castes are labouring. On that point I had my own differences with Dr. Ambedkar also. But at the same time, when you have given reservation in the Parts A and B States, it would be unjust to deny it to those in Part C States,—people who are not represented in Parliament or in the respective local bodies.
As Dr. Deshmukh has said, there is a lot of omission and there are many mistakes in the formulation of these lists of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, not only in the Bill that is before us, but also in the order of the President for Parts A and B States. I looked into the proceedings of the Constituent Assembly touching on this point and I find that it was stated then that the list already fromulated in the
1935 Act would be accepted when it comes to the question of elections under the new Constitution. But when the President’s order came out, so many castes included in that Act were excluded and we have now only a few of these Scheduled Castes and Tribes in almost all the Parts A and B States. I feel that this was not done without a purpose. This I think, was done deliberately. I mean this omission or reduction in the number of names in the list, because if they had included