I WAS..................INDIA 327
in political knowledge and having regard to the fact that he was not present at the first R.T.C. I was thirsting to get the first chance to speak so that I could expose the whole business and let Mr. Gandhi know what the situation was.
Dr. Ambedkar narrated here how he spoke to the Lord Chancellor of his little temperature and managed to be allowed by the Lord Chancellor to speak first. The Lord Chancellor asked Mr. Gandhi “if he has any objection”, Mr. Gandhi for generosity’s sake said ‘no’. I spoke for about an hour and a half, and it was probably one of the largest speeches that I had made in that country. After having made the speech and having tendered false excuse, I had to keep appearances and walked out of the Conference. I was the only man sitting in the whole of London waiting for the approach of evening in order to find out what Mr. Gandhi has spoken. Precisely at midnight, a report of the proceedings of the Conference reached my door. On opening the packet delivered to me by the postman I found the very first sentence of Mr. Gandhi’s speech “My heart is with Dr. Ambedkar but my head is not with him.” “Everything that I had suggested in my speech he counteracted. I was very furious and I really had temperature although in the morning I had none (Cries of shame shame). The next morning I went to the Conference. Mr. Gandhi and others were there. As the proceedings were open, I intervened and told the Lord Chancellor that before the proceedings commenced, I might be permitted to ask Mr. Gandhi certain questions. That is the cause of quarrel between myself and Mr. Gandhi. I asked Mr. Gandhi three questions. One of them was whether he had received any mandate from the Congress in support of this statements that he would welcome the representation of the Indian Princes by nomination and whether the matter was ever discussed by the Congress, whether the Congress had passed any resolutions and whether he was authorised to do anything. The other question asked him was related to the indirect elections : The Conservative Party was keen on having indirect elections to which we were all opposed. Mr. Gandhi had agreed in his speech that he saw no objection to indirect election. I asked Mr. Gandhi whether it was not a fact that this principle of indirect election was brought out in the Home Rule Bill prepared by Mrs. Annie Besant