908 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
chaprasis and there you find the number of scheduled castes people fairly large. There are the figures which must be within the ken of the Home Ministry. They have laid down a proportion and surely, it is their duty to see that that proportion is carried out by the different Ministeries. Why has there been this defalcation on the part of the various Ministeries and why has the Home Minister not taken any action ? If he had taken any action, what is the action that he took in order that the scheduled castes receive their quota which is fixed by him ? Sir, it is a very black picture, if I may say so, very black. It reminds me of a cartoon which was drawn by the Germans during the last War. The cartoon depicted an old negro gentleman in Washington. When war was declared, the negro—as everybody knows, negroes are not well disposed towards the whites in America; they are always very angry, quarrelling with them for not giving them equality of opportunity—suddenly felt very patriotic and he said that he must transfer some of his patriotism to the young boy who was his son. He went to the market and purchased an American National Flag—small one which the boy could hold—and gave it to the boy. He said, “My son, I want to show you today our capital, our capital”. The boy did not realise what it meant. Holding the boy by the right hand— and the boy holding the flag in his left hand—the old man took him round and round in Washington City, showed him the Supreme Court, the Congress House, the Senate and so on and so on and ultimately, after lunch, came down to the White House, stood there for a minute or two, and said to the young boy, “My dear boy, this is the House of our President”. But the boy said, “Father, what are you talking ? He is a white man and how do you praise him ?” The old man said, “Oh, shut up, that is only outward”. That is to say, inside he is quite black. I think that might well be applied to the Home Minister; notwithstanding the white dress, he is very black inside and the evidence is the neglect which has been shown in the matter of seeing that the Home Ministry’s own orders are carried out. Nothing has been done.
I have dealt with services and I will deal now with the question of propaganda. I see that the Government of India