274 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
(iv) The decision of the Advisory Committee even if they are favourable are no more than recommendations. They are not binding on the Constituent Assembly.
- The device of an Advisory Committee is thus a hoax if not a humbug and cannot be relied upon to counteract the mischief the Hindu majority may do to the cause of the minorities. The Hindu majority has singled out the Untouchables for their malicious intention and seems to be determined to deprive them of the right to claim the political safeguards which are due to a majority. This is apparent from the letter addressed by the Congress on 25th June 1946 (Item
21 in Cmd. 6861). In that letter the Congress has taken the stand that the Untouchables are not a minority. This is an astounding proposition. For according to Mr. Gandhi’s own admission in his weekly called the Harijan of 21st October
1939 the Untouchables were the only real minority in India, The Congress has thus taken a complete somersault. The stand now taken by the Congress is contrary to the underlying principles of the Government of India Act, 1935, which recognizes them a minority. What mischief is contemplated by this somersault it is not possible to know. If the Congress does not regard the Untouchables to be a minority it is possible that the Constituent Assembly might refuse to give them the same safeguards which it might agree to give to the other minorities. The Advisory Committee cannot therefore save the Untouchables from peril.
Parliament must, therefore, intervene to see that the position of the Untouchables is not jeopardized. This Parliament must do, not merely because of the pledges it has given but also because of the fact that the discussions of the Constituent Assembly are not subject to ratification.
What can Parliament do ? The Untouchables would like that the wrong done to them in regard to the Interim Government be-redressed. They would like their quota fixed. They would like to be given the right to nominate their representatives to the Executive Council. These rights are not new claims. They are vested rights of the Untouchables which were recognized as late as the Simla Conference of 1945. They realize that this wrong it may be difficult to redress now. But if circumstances change and the