74 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
(b) to regulate from time to time priority in employment in accordance with the existing extent of the representation of the various communities in any particular service concerned,
(6) Redressing against prejudicial action or neglect of interest,
(7) Special Departmental care, and
(8) Fair representation according to their population in the Cabinet.
Now let us ask what happened to these demands of the Untouchables ? We must turn to the report made by the Minorities Committee to the Round Table Conference. Items
16 and 18 tell us the determined attitude of the Depressed Classes in securing separate electorate for themselves. In brief, it was unanimously agreed that the Untochables were entitled to be recognised as a separate element in the political life of India. Here we must not forget that the unanimous agreement on the point of the separate recognition of the Untouchables was made possible only in the absence of the Indian National Congress.
To turn to the Second Round Table Conference we find that the Congress had its full representation in it. Every one was looking forward to the Congress to lead the Conference to success. Unfortunately, Mr. Gandhi was chosen to represent the Indian National Congress. A worse person could not have been found to guide the destiny of India. He presented a curious picture of a man, who in many cases would terrify the Conference to resist in every way any compromise which he regarded below his principle, though others would regard it absolutely as a prejudice and in other cases he would remain silent on the points of vital importance which was considered as a matter of principles by others. On 15th September 1931, Mr. Gandhi made his first speech in which he said that the problem of the Untouchables is not at all. He referred to the activities of the Social Conference, about which we know that the Congress did not allow this body to hold its annual session under the pandal of the Congress, merely because Mr. Tilak