43. Government should be Impartial

GOVERNMENT SHOULD BE IMPARTIAL

The pitiable plight of the Untouchables coming from Eastern Punjab was becoming worse day by day. To get the solution to this problem officials from the Untouchables were to be appointed in the Relief and Rehabilitation Department. Hence Dr. Ambedkar wrote a letter to Hon’ble Mr. K. C. Neogy, Minister for Relief and Rehabilitation, New Delhi. The letter is as follows.—Editors.

“Personal New Delhi, 23rd March 1948.

My dear Neogy, You will recall that you wanted me to recommend the names of some special workers who could be employed under your Department for helping the Scheduled Caste refugees who have come over from Western Punjab to Eastern Punjab in the matter of their rehabilitation. I gave you a list of persons who could be employed for this work. I do not know what you have done with regard to the names contained in the list. There are, however, two persons whom I recommended and whom you have appointed, and about whom I propose to write to you in this matter. They are Messrs B. K. Gaikwad and R. S. Jadhav. Both of them have been complaining to me that they are given no work at all and that they are wasting their time. They also reported to me that they were called over by Mr. Shevakram Karamchand who is the Director of the Harijan Section of your Department and who cross questioned as to their views on the general politics of this country. The impression left upon them, which they conveyed to me, is that the Government of India is not prepared to employ people because they do not belong to the Congress. It seems to me absurd, if not mischievous, for Government to insist that its employees should have the same political opinion as the Party in power, and I am sure that you do not share the view-point expressed by Mr. Shewakram Karamchand. What I am concerned about is that these two men who have been retained are not given the work for which they were

recruited. Mr. Karamchand told them in the course of the interview that the persons recommended by the Harijan League were thoroughly incompetent and were of no use for the sort of work they were expected to do and that the persons belonging to the Scheduled Castes Federation were the most competent, and yet these men are not given the responsible work for which they were recruited merely because their political opinions are distasteful to this gentleman. I am, therefore, driven to ask you whether you intend to give them any responsible piece of work for which they are fitted. If you are not prepared to do that I think it is only right that you should discontinue their service and allow them to return to their places and do the social work that they had been doing. I am sorry I have to write to you in this very direct fashion, but when one’s patience is exhausted one has no other way. With kind regards.

Yours sincerely, Sd/—B.R. Ambedkar.

Honourable Mr. K. C. Neogy, Minister for Relief and Rehabilitation, New Delhi.”1 zz 1 : Reprinted, Khairmode, Vol. 10, Pp. 34-35.