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I AM A DEVOTEE OF GAUTAM BUDDHA, KABIR, MAHATMA PHULE AND WORSHIPPER OF LEARNING, SELF-RESPECT AND CHARACTER
“Under the auspices of Dr. Ambedkar’s Diamond Jubilee Celebration Committe, a public meeting attended by about
25,000 persons was held at Purandare’s Stadium, Naigaum, Bombay at about 6-30 p. m. on October 28th, 1954. Shri R. D. Bhandare presided.
Shri Shankar Anant Upasham, while giving an account of the collection towards the purse, said that Dr. B. R. Ambedkar had completed 60 years on 14th April 1952, and the celebration ought to have taken place in 1952, but they could not perform the celebration on the date and they were doing it on the day in question. He said that so far they were able to collect about 93,000 rupees and after deduction of expenses the amount would come to Rs. 88,000. This collection had been made from the people of his community in the Greater Bombay. He further said that the people outside Bombay had collected about 32,000 rupees for the Building Fund and that amount would be added in the amount mentioned above and the total amount to be given to Dr. Ambedkar was one lakh and Eighteen Thousand rupees.
The president during the course of his speech said that Dr. Ambedkar was greater than Vyas, Manu, Abraham Lincon and even Karl Marx. He said that there was no leader in India who could be compared with Dr. Ambedkar. It was he who predicted the results of the partition of the country ten years before the actual partition took place. He has sacrificed his whole life for the uplift of the Downtrodden people and while presenting the purse of Rs. one lakh and 18 thousand he on behalf of all the people requested Dr. Ambedkar to use that amount for his own purpose. He assured him that they could collect a separate amount for erecting a building as desired by him.
Dr. Ambedkar in reply declared that the amount given to him would be utilised for building a hall. He said that a land had already been purchased for the purpose and those who were