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MINISTRY SEEMS TO BE INTOXICATED WITH POWER
Bombay, Thursday.*
‘In the name of the working class of Bombay, in the name of Law and Order and in the name of decent administration of the province I demand an impartial and public inquiry into the scandalous mismanagement of the protest strike by the police department under the control of the Hon. Mr. Munshi. I demand a public inquiry into the absolutely uncalled for firing and lathi charges to which the police repeatedly resorted’ said Dr. B. R. Ambedkar leader of the Independent Labour Party in the course of a statement to the Press. [1]
‘ What has come over the Congress Ministry, asked Dr. Ambedkar, ‘that it should not be able to manage a single day’s strike without resorting to such disgraceful terror.’
‘ There were strikes that lasted for days and weeks and months in the past. There was one that lasted for seven and a half months with processions and meetings and demonstrations every day. There were no such lathi charges and firing during the whole of this period.’
‘Today under Congress Raj we cannot have a single day’s strike without repression and terrorism being let loose. That i s what the Congress has come to.’
The Press
What about the press, the press that stood for freedom and rights of workers and championed their cause as long as the Congress needed their help ?
Today that press is resorting to lies and falsehoods and distortions and suppression of facts that must make the British and Anglo-Indian journal blush with shame.
1: Free Press Journal, dated 9th November 1938. i.e. Wednesday.
- The 3rd November 1938.