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IF OUR TRUE REPRESENTATIVES ARE NOT ELECTED, INDEPENDENCE WILL BE A FARCE
Dr. Ambedkar’s Speech during Election campaign in Ludhiana, on 28th-October 1951.
He said,
Dear brothers and sisters,
This is the first time that I have visited Ludhiana to speak to our people. Many times before I proposed to visit this place but due to certain unavoidable circumstances, I could not do so. What an auspicious occasion it is that you all have gathered here !
You know in two-three months elections are going to be held in which many parties are taking part. The Scheduled Castes Federation is also putting its candidates for the election. We will contest all the seats reserved for the Scheduled Castes in the State Assemblies and the Union Parliament and also some general seats where we have sufficient number of votes. I hope that our candidates will be successful. Our candidates’ success depends mostly upon our own people. If all our people voted for our candidates, I am sure of our success, I would therefore urge that all the Scheduled Caste people should vote for the candidates put by the Scheduled Castes Federation, which is the only organisation of the Scheduled Castes and other Backward Classes.
I want to tell you how the British people have deceived during the period of their rule over India. They were successful in establishing their Raj in Hindustan although they were hundreds of miles away. First of all when the East India Company came to India its purpose was only to do business but by and by the Britishers became anxious to establish their Raj here. How were they able to achieve that objective ? They had no army of their own in India. Nobody has so far been able to tell how the Britishers were able to subdue all the Rajas and Maharajas of India without army of their own. I am now going to answer this question. The British people became the rulers of India with the help of the Scheduled Castes people, who were called the Untouchables; who were illiterate and with whom the