392 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
The decisions of the Cabinet Mission seemed to wipe out the Scheduled Castes as a separate political entity and that without political sefeguards the Scheduled Castes appeared to me to be doomed. There was complete darkness before me. That is the reason why I have not made any statement.
In reply to (2) I said :
It is true I have been an opponent and a ciritic of the Congress. At the same time, I do not believe in opposition for the sake of opposition. There ought to be the spirit of co-operation where we can gain something by co-operation. I thought there would be no use fighting against the Congress. I, therefore, decided to co-operate and by co-operation we got some safeguards in the Constitution which we might not otherwise have got and gave some instances to substantiate my argument.
With regard to my joining the Cabinet : I said there were two reasons which prevailed upon me to accept the offer— (i) the offer was without any condition : (ii) one could serve the interests of the Scheduled Castes better from within the Government than from without.
I said that the Scheduled Castes had no fear of bad laws being made to their prejudice. What they had to fear about was bad administration. This bad administration was due to the absence of men belonging to the Scheduled Castes in the administration.
The Administration was unsympathetic to the Scheduled Castes because it was maintained wholly by caste Hindu officers who were partial to the caste Hindus in the villages, who exacted begar from the Scheduled Castes, and practised upon them tyranny and oppression day in and day out. This tyranny and oppression could be averted only if more of the Scheduled Castes could find places in the civil service. This can be done better by being inside the Government rather than remaining outside.
In regard to third point, I said that their is no use joining the Congress. Safety lies in having two parties. There must be an opposition to criticise the Government. The Government may otherwise easily become dictator. It is a house which is burning. There are many inside the Congress who want to form an opposition, the necessity of which they feel quite strongly.