466 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
Dr. Ambedkar would launch a scathing attack on Untouchability in India during his stay in America to draw the attention of the world to this unjust practice and thus would expose the Indian Government’s failure in tackling the problem. But this fear was baseless. Because Dr. Ambedkar was an Indian first and would do nothing disgraceful to damage the reputation of his motherland.
Dr. Ambedkar while expressing his gratitude towards all said that he had not arranged any lecture programme in the United States and therefore no one need be under the apprehension that he would say anything harsh there about this country.
Dr. Ambedkar said that although it was said that he posses a vitriolic temperament and had on many occasions crossed the floors and come into conflict with those in authority he had not on a single occasion been a traitor to the country. He always had the interest of the country at heart. Even at the Round Table Conference, he said, he had been ‘ 200 miles ahead of Mahatma Gandhi ’ so far as the interests of India were concerned”. (The Times of India, Monday, 2-6-1952, Page 7, Column 3).
While throwing light, on this dinner party hosted in honour of Dr. Ambedkar a columnist of The Evening News of India’ observed thus :
“ A GREAT MAN”
It is an irony of fate—to quote Principal U. S. Patankar of Siddhartha College— that none of the Indian Universities has so far taken the initiative in honouring Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, one of the Chief Architects of our Constitution, by conferring an honorary degree on him. Even Bombay University of which Dr. Ambedkar was an alumnus, has been “slow and halting”
It has fallen to the credit of Columbia University, to which also the learned doctor was a student, of being the first to honour Dr. Ambedkar by conferring on him the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws.
Dr. Ambedkar left for the United States last Monday by a T. W. A. plane. He will stay in the States for only a few weeks during which he hopes to get some treatment for his legs.