574 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
was a change in the Ministry, it was always a Brahmin who was chosen as Prime Minister thus establishing the convention that it was only an Amurath that should succeed an Amurath. The setting up of the Congress Parliamentary Board was itself an ingenious way of ensuring that the time honoured governing class should exercise authority and control. Thus in the very choice of Congress Candidates it was not the Provincial Congress Committees that had the final voice but the Chairman of the Parliamentary Board. Nay, the Presidents of the Provincial Committees, even had no say in the matter, but it was left to a Congress member like Mr. Rajgopalachari to take these recommendations and obtain the final approval of the Parlimentary Board. Is it any wonder that under such circumstances, Non-Brahmins with any degree or independence and those who were not likely to prove themselves docile and submissive had no chance of being even nominated as candidates ? Would it surprise any of our countrymen that under these circumstances a person like Dr. Ramalinga Reddy who was the leader of the Congress opposition in the previous legislative was not selected and was put into cold storage when hundreds of persons whose fame and name were hidden in the Congress archives suddenly found themselves in the limelight and were chosen as candidates ?
Even in the selection of candidates the power was centred in the Parliamentary Boards. Is it any wonder that when it came a choice of Prime Ministers it was entirely left to a handful to decide ? Naturally all the Prime Ministers were Brahmins. Mr. Rajgopalachari, Mr. Kher, Pandit Pant, Mr. Bardolai, Pandit Shukla etc. like genusome—all had to be of the chosen race and they in turn saw it that the Ministry was atleast fifty percent pure with members of the governing race. You may extend the franchise as much as you can, you may give adult franchise and you may even give adoloscents and even children the franchise, but what will come to the surface will be the governing race. Not only were nearly fifty percent of the ministry Brahmins but practically all the important portfolis with power and patronage must be in their hands and under their control. Thus to take our own presidency into consideration—Finance, Police, Public Services, Revenue, Medicine and Public Health, Industries, Religious