RESIGNATION NOT DUE TO ILLNESS 405
Propriety of Reading out Dr. Ambedkar’s letters
Mr. Kamath’s Query in Parliament,
New Delhi, October 12 : The propriety of the Prime Minister’s reading out to Parliament last evening the letters exchanged between Dr. Ambedkar and himself, without taking the permission of the former and without informing him, has raised in Parliament this morning by Mr. H. V. Kamath.
Soon after Dr. Ambedkar had taken his seat in the front bench amidst cheers. Mr. Kamath raised this question and asked whether Dr. Ambedkar would be permitted to make a statement commenting on the correspondence. The Deputy Speaker said that every member should speak for himself. He pointed out that he had fixed 6 p. m. last evening as the time Dr. Ambedkar to make the statement. At that time Dr. Ambedkar was not in his seat and the Prime Minister wanted to read out certain relevant papers and permission was given. No particular notice need be given to any member.
Clarifying his position, Dr. Ambedkar said that when he left the Chamber in the morning, he was quite sure that he had left the impression on the House and the Chair that he was not prepared to make a statement at 6 p.m. He was not saying that he felt injured by the Prime Minister’s reading out the correspondence at 6 p.m. “knowing fully well that I had stated clearly in the morning that I was not going to obey your observations and make the statement at 6 p.m.”
Dr. Ambedkar added :—
“Whether it was justifiable for the Prime Minister to have read out the letters or not is a matter I leave to the Prime Minister and yourself, because I have other channels open to me for correcting wrong impressions”.
Closing the incident the Deputy Speaker said. It is always open to a member to change his mind and make the statement especially when once I had fixed 6 p. m. as the time for the statement.” [1]
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1 : The Times of India, dated 11-10-1951, the dates ‘11’ seems to be incorrect—Editors.
Reprinted: Khairmode, Vol. 10, Pp. 119-121.