ROLE OF ......................... INDIAN DEMOCRACY 103
“ DEPRESSED CLASSES AND FUTURE CONSTITUTION
Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, who also arrived in Bombay on Friday the 27th February 1931 morning was given an enthusiastic reception at Ballard Pier by a battalion of the Ambedkar Seva Dal Interviewed by a representative of The Times of India he made the following statement:” The Round Table Conference is to my mind a triumph of statesmanship. It would be an idle pretence to say that there are no defects in the Constitution as outlined by the Conference, but in my opinion they are not of a vital character. Even assuming the contrary to be the truth there is yet time and opportunity for all those who believe in a peaceful solution of the Indian problem to step in and improve the framework. My greatest disappointment arises from the fact that the Constitution as outlined by the Conference is most undemocratic in as much as it is based on a very restricted franchise. It is a great pity that Mr. Gandhi, judging from the reports of his pronouncement on the results of the Conference, seems to have entirely lost sight of this aspect of the Constitution and is laying stress on elements which, I venture to think, are the most trivial and the most transient. Those of us who represented the Depressed Classes and labour fought for adult suffrage and although we failed, because all other parties played false to their position as signatories to the Nehru Report. I for one have been living in the hope that when Mr. Gandhi comes to lay down his terms of settlement he will see to it that the Constitution to which he will be a party will be a thoroughly democratic one.
If Mr. Gandhi fails us in our efforts to secure political power to the common man and woman in India, I would not hesitate to call his act as the greatest betrayal of trust and his campaign of civil disobedience as the worst exploitation of the masses for the service of the classes. In view of the fact that Mr. Gandhi’s political philosophy is not known to many it may be advisable for those leaders of the masses who count themselves among his followers and disciples to ask from him a declaration of his views on the question of adult suffrage before they give him any further support in his campaign of civil disobedience.”