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SAFEGUARDS UNDER GOVERNMENT OF INDIA ACT AND POONA PACT ARE INADEQUATE
“A rally of over 40,000 men and women was held at Mazagaon on Sunday night the 4th February 1940 under the presidentship of Mr. S. C. Joshi.
The rally was the culmination point of the five-mile long procession which started from Dr. Ambedkar’s residence to honour Mr. Surendranath Tipnis, Chairman of the Kolaba District Branch of the Independent Party, who was released from Thana jail on Saturday morning after undergoing imprisonment for three months in connection with a speech, which advocated abolition of the Khoti system.
Most of the district leaders of the Party and Party-members of the Assembly as also volunteer corps—about a thousand strong-participated in the procession which wended its way amidst slogans and cheers through crowded working class localities.
While addressing the rally Dr. Ambedkar, Leader of the Independent Labour Party, said,
The safeguards provided under the Government of India Act and the Poona Pact had proved totally inadequate to protect the interests of the Depressed Classes and that these classes would soon have to direct their attention to formulate concrete proposals and conditions of an elaborate and comprehensive nature on which alone any future co-operation with the administration would be possible.” [1]
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1 : The Bombay Chronicle, dated 6th February 1940.