220 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
Muslim community has or can have. The Scheduled Castes have been urging that the only effective protection they can have is representation through separate electorates and the provision for separate settlement. The Cabinet Mission was aware of these demands and all the evidence in support of them. Following the principle adopted by the Cabinet Mission to guarantee freedom from the domination of the Hindu majority in the manner referred to above it was possible for the Cabinet to lay down in the same para 15 a further limitation of the powers of the Constituent Assembly by laying down that the Scheduled Castes should have the right to be represented in the Legislature through separate electorates and to have a statutory provision for separate settlements as means of escape from the domination of the Hindu majority.
- The Working Committee has noted that the Cabinet Mission has in its second statement, provided that the ratification of the Treaty between the United Kingdom and the Indian Constituent Assembly will be subject to proper safeguards being made for the protection of the minorities including the Scheduled Castes. The Cabinet Mission in its hurry to placate the Congress Party had not dared to include this provision in Clause 22 of its first statement although it had formed part of the Cripps proposals of 1942.
While the Working Committee is glad that the Mission has retrieved its position and saved the honour of the British people in whose name pledges were given to the Scheduled Castes, the working Committee demands that the plan of the Cabinet Mission should be amended in the following respects :—
(1) The following clauses should be added as clause (7) to para 15 of the Statement :—
“(7) The Scheduled Castes should have the right to be represented in the Legislatures through separate electorates.”
(8) That the Constitution shall contain a provision making it obligatory on the Government to undertake the formation of separate settlements for the Scheduled Castes.