19
BOTH ARE MAKING SERIOUS MISTAKE
“A large gathering of his followers and admirers was present at the Victoria Terminus to accord a reception to the Hon. Dr. Bhimrao R. Ambedkar, Labour Member, in the Viceroy’s Executive Council, on his arrival by the Poona Express on Tuesday evening.*
Upon alighting on the platform Dr. Ambedkar was profusely garlanded by representatives of several Scheduled Castes and other Associations.
A Procession was then taken out in his honour which wended its way from the Station to Rajgrah at Dadar.” [1]
“The Hon. Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, in an interview with a Representative of The Times of India on Wednesday,** stated that nothing but failure was expected of the Gandhi-Jinnah talks. “They did not meet each other, he said,” with empty minds, but it is equally true that neither had an open mind.”
The failure, in the opinion of Dr. Ambedkar, was due to among other causes, the obstinacy of both Mr. Gandhi and Mr. Jinnah, and the fundamental faults of the formula of Mr. Rajagopalachari. He added that no settlement of the Indian question could be considered complete without the consent of the Scheduled Castes. Neither Mr. Gandhi nor Mr. Jinnah was entitled to speak for them.
“I cannot believe,” observed Dr. Ambedkar in his interview, “that Mr. Gandhi and Mr. Jinnah met to bring about a communal settlement. The adoption of Gujerati by Mr. Gandhi as a medium of communication with Mr. Jinnah when he asked for an interview was enough to make me feel that the talks would fail. Mr. Jinnah was too elated by the receipt of the letter to understand its implication. By writing it Gujerati, Mr. Gandhi, in his inimitable way, told Mr. Jinnah that he was only a Lohana, whose mother-tongue was Gujerati.
- The 3rd October 1944.
** The 4th October 1944.
- : The Bombay Chronicle : dated 4th October 1944.