Ambedkar remarks row: Amid controversy over the alleged insult to BR Ambedkar, a letter written by India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru to Lady Edwina Mountbatten dated January 16, 1952, discussing Indian elections, has surfaced. In a letter published in the ‘Selected Works of Jawaharlal Nehru’, the late Prime Minister reflects on the Congress party’s performance in India’s first democratic elections. Discussing the 1952 general elections in Bombay province, Nehru mentions the defeats of Babasaheb Ambedkar.
What did Nehru say?
Nehru in the letter said, “On the other hand in Bombay city and to a larger extent in Bombay province our success has been far greater than expected. Ambedkar has been dropped out.
The Socialists have not done well at all. The Communists or rather a group with Communist leadership have done much better than expected. No other party, except the Congress, has made much of a mark. Then there are a number of Independents who have crept in.
As this election has progressed it has almost become a personal attack on me from all the other groups. Our chief opponents in North India are the Hindu and Sikh communal groups. I am the butt and target of their attack. The surprising and distressful part of it is that all kinds of unprincipled alliances are taking place.
Thun the Socialist combined with Ambedkar’s Party and thereby lost their repute with the public. Ambedkar has combined with Hindu communalism Kripalani’s Party’ has also made strange alliances with reactionary groups. In fact every kind of combination is taking place regardless of party or group principles. Everyone’s object, outside the Congress, has been to defeat the Congress by hook or crook and as I am supposed to give strength to the Congress, which is true. I am attacked bitterly and often indecently.
These reactionary communal groups have tried to make the Hindu Code Bill an issue and all kinds of lies have been circulated against it. I am rather glad that this subject has come up in the elections in this way because that strengthens it during later stages.
It is difficult to prophesy but probably we shall have a considerable majority in the Lower House of Parliament. In some of the States, we are not likely to have a majority though our Party will be the biggest. That is going to create difficulties because no other party is capable of carrying on by itself or even.”
He further said, “The Congress Party won 269 seats ow of 315 on the Bombay State Assembly.
Narayan Kajrolkar, a Congress candidate from the Bombay North Reserved Constituency, defeated Ambedkar of the All-India Scheduled Castes Federation by a margin of 14,000 votes. In Bombay Province, the Federation had won just one seat. In the Lok Sabha out of 32 seats contested, it won two and in the State Assemblies, it won 12 states out of 213.”
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