110 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
Working Committee. It represented the Depressed Classes because removal of Untouchability was a plank on the political platform of the Congress. Gandhi told the Princes that Congress stood for States also inasmuch as “even now the Congress had endeavoured to serve the Princes of India by refraining from any interference in their domestic and internal affairs”. The Congress represented women, Gandhi observed, because Congress had Dr. Annie Besant and Sarojini Naidu as Presidents. And because he was the sole representative of the Congress, it followed that he was the sole representative of the Indian nation !
Dr. Ambedkar sensed from this speech of Gandhi in what direction the wind was blowing. Dr. Ambedkar made his first speech in the Federal Structure Committee on the same day. He told the Princes that the Federal Structure Committee could not blindly give to the State what they wanted. This put the Maharaja of Bikaner on his legs, and he replied that nor could the States sign a blank cheque either. Dr. Ambedkar, emphasizing his point, said that before a State was allowed to join the Federation, it must prove that it had the necessary resources and the capacity to give its citizens a civilized life, and the main condition laid down by Dr. Ambedkar was that the States’ representatives to the Federal Assembly should be chosen by election and not by nomination. It was his confirmed opinion that nomination made the Executive irresponsible to the Legislature giving a false appearance to the outside world that the Legislature was working normally on the basis of a majority rule. He added that the principle of nomination was against the principle of responsible Government. As regards the demand of the landlords for special representation, he said that they should not be given special representation as they sided with the orthodox, and thereby defeated the ends of freedom and progress. Obviously, this was the first and best speech made in defence of the rights of the States’ people.
These strong views gave a shock to the Princely Order, the landlords and their benefactors, who favoured the view of the Princes that their representatives to the Federal Assembly should be selected by nomination. The result was that every speaker devoted some part or other of his speech to refuting or supporting Dr. Ambedkar’s speech as a majority of them thought that his views were radical and revolutionary.