152 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
December 1955. In this regard he made a correspondence with his likeminded contemporaries like Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia.
The Executive Committee of the Scheduled Castes Federation was held on 30th September 1956 at the residence of Dr. B. R. Ambedkar at New Delhi. Dr. Ambedkar presided over the meeting. As per resolution No. 2 passed in the meeting, it was unanimously decided that by dissolving the Scheduled Castes Federation, the new political party having name ‘Republican Party’ be established. [1]
Dr. B. R. Ambedkar addressed a Press Conference on 13th October 1956, at Nagpur wherein he categorically stated that he had already drafted Constitution of the Republican Party. [2] .
Editors-R. Chandidas, Ward Morehouse, Leon Clark and Richard Fontera—of the volume ‘India Votes’ mentioned the distinctive features of the Republican Party as follows :
“REPUBLICAN Party of India is an All India Political Party founded by Late Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar who was the great political thinker, great social revolutionary, and the great Constitutional expert. He dedicated his life to the cause of reconstructing the Indian society based on liberty, equality and fraternity. The Republican Party of India dedicates itself to this great task:
Republican Party of India Stands for Parliamentary Democracy.
- The Republican Party of India will stand for the Parliamentary system of Government as being the best form of Government both in the interest of the public and in the interest of the individual.
Secularism uphold
The Republican Party of India upholds the secular character of the State.” [3]
Prabuddha Bharat: 6th and 13th Oct. 1956.
Prabuddha Bharat: Dr. Ambedkar : Convertion to Buddhism, Special Number, 27th October 1956.
India Votes, P. 85.