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Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru had been ignoring Bharat Ratna Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar before the independence of the country. He did not want Baba Saheb to become a member of the Constituent Assembly. Constituent Assembly elections were held in July 1946 under the Cabinet Mission Plan 1946. The British had conducted these elections in the undivided India which included India along with today’s Pakistan and Bangladesh. Initially, it had 389 members, but after the partition of India and Pakistan this number decreased to 299. At that time 229 members were elected from 12 Indian provinces and 70 members were nominated from 29 princely states.
Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar had contested the Constituent Assembly elections from Mumbai North. Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru did not want him to enter the Constituent Assembly under any circumstances. He entrusted the responsibility of making Baba Saheb lose the election to the Prime Minister of Bombay Presidency, B.G. Shekhar. Congress also used all its might to make Dr. Ambedkar lose the elections.
How Baba Saheb was elected in constituent assembly
After Baba Saheb was defeated in the Constituent Assembly from Mumbai, there was a stir among the Dalits of India. They were disappointed that if Baba Saheb did not enter the Constituent Assembly, their interests would not be protected. Dalit leader of Bengal Jogendranath Mandal decided to get Baba Saheb elected from Bengal and send him to the Constituent Assembly. 5 MLAs were needed to make Baba Saheb win. At that time, 4 MLAs in Bengal were from the Scheduled Caste, and to win, the support of one more MLA required and for which Jogendranath Mandal put in all his efforts. On 8 July 1946, Baba Saheb filed his nomination papers, whose proposer was Jogendranath Mandal and supporter was Nogendra Narayan Rai. To defeat him here too, the Congress fielded P. R. Thakur, a descendant of Jogendranath Mandal’s philosophical guru Harichand Guruchand Thakur, against Baba Saheb. Jogendra Babu took the support of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose’s elder brother Sharat Chandra Bose to make Baba Saheb win. Besides Jogendranath Mandal, Baba Saheb got the support of 6 other MLAs – Nagendra Narayan Rai, Mukunda Bihari Mallick, Dwarikanath Baruri, Gayanath Biswas, Kshetrinath Sindha and Birsa and on 20 July 1946, Baba Saheb was declared victorious.
Baba Saheb were put out of constituent assembly
The joy of Baba Saheb’s victory lasted only for a year. On 4 July 1947, the ‘Indian Independence Bill’ was presented in the British Parliament, which was passed on 15 July 1947. The partition of India was ensured. With the partition of India, Bengal was also divided into two parts. The Khulna-Jessore seat of Bengal from which Baba Saheb was elected, became a part of Pakistan. Thus Baba Saheb was put out of the Constituent Assembly of India. The sad part was that in the Khulna-Jessore region, Hindus were 52 percent and Muslims were 4 percent and theoretically it should have been a part of India in the partition, but the Congress Party gave it to Pakistan under its crooked politics. It was the evil policy of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru to show Baba Saheb the way out of the politics of independent India.
Baba Saheb came back to the Constituent Assembly
Baba Saheb was a member of the Viceroy’s Council from 1942 to 1946 and held the portfolios of Labour and CPWD.
Baba Saheb had already shown his efficiency in the Viceroy Council. His life was full of struggles, he dedicated his life to safeguard the interests of Dalits, backward, tribals and deprived.
Baba Saheb Bhimrao Ambedkar participated in the first Round Table Conference in London in 1930 as a representative of Dalits and backward classes. He strongly presented the problems and interests of Dalits, backward and tribals. His speech in the Round Table Conference of 1930 is considered historic, which was not liked by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and senior Congress leaders. Nehru did not want that the representative of Dalits, backward and tribals should participate in the Round Table Conference to expose the evil policies of Congress.
The nation respected Baba Saheb’s efficiency and wanted him to be a part of the Constituent Assembly, so that the interests of Dalits, backwards could be protected in the Constitution of India. Under pressure from the people, the Congress Party softened its stubbornness towards Baba Saheb and he was elected to the Indian Constituent Assembly from the Bombay state from the seat vacated by Mukund Ramrao Jankar.
Constitution of Drafting Committee
Dr. Rajendra Prasad was elected the President of the Constituent Assembly. The most important committee among all the committees of the Constituent Assembly was the ‘Drafting Committee’, which was formed on 29 August 1947. This committee was entrusted with the task of drafting the new constitution. Nehru did not want to see Baba Saheb in the Drafting Committee. Ambedkar’s image as a social reformer was a cause of concern for the Congress. This was the reason why the Congress Party had planned to keep him away from the Constituent Assembly, but due to the pressure from several quarters, Baba Saheb was elected in the Constituent Assembly.
Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru wanted to take the help of British experts to write the Constitution, but Mahatma Gandhi said that when a scholar like Dr. Ambedkar is present in India then what is the need of a foreign expert.
Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar was made the chairman of the constitution draft committee. Other members of the committee were N. Madhava Rao, T.T. Krishnamachari, Dr. K.M. Munshi, Syed Mohammad Saadullah, N. Gopalaswami Iyengar, Alladi Krishnaswamy Iyer, B.L. Mitter and D.P. Khaitan.
Two of these members lived abroad and one passed away. The desired cooperation of many members was not received. While signing the Constitution, drafting committee member T.T. Krishnamachari accepted that Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar played a key role in drafting the Constitution.
Interim Government of India in 1946
Viceroy Lord Wavell invited Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru to form an interim government in India on 2 September 1946. This interim government consisted of 12 members under the leadership of Pandit Nehru. After the resignation of three members of the Congress, five members of the Muslim League were included, then the total number of members became 14.
Two Dalit ministers were included in the interim government. These members were Babu Jagjivan Ram-Labour Minister and Jogendra Nath Mandal-Law Minister. Mandal was made Minister from Muslim League quota. Again Dr. Ambedkar was ignored in the interim government, the pain of which continued to haunt Baba Saheb. When Baba Saheb resigned from the post of Law Minister of India on 27 September 1951 after 4 years, 1 month and 26 days, he wrote that he was not considered worthy of the post of minister in the interim government of 1946.
Being a Law Minister of India no administrative work was assigned to Dr Ambedkar
After the independence of the country, a government was formed under the leadership of Pandit Nehru, in which Baba Saheb was made the Law Minister. Baba Saheb wanted to be given an administrative post so that he could do something for the Dalits, backward and deprived. He wrote in his resignation letter that being a member of the Viceroy Council, he knew that the Law Ministry was unimportant from the administrative point of view. He used to call this ministry an empty soapbox which was good only for the old lawyers to play with. He told Prime Minister Nehru that in the Executive Council of the Viceroy Council, he had two administrative departments ‘Labour and CPWD’ where he had seen many projects, due to which he should also get some administrative departments. The Prime Minister also agreed that he would give him the ‘Planning’ department which he was going to create. The Planning Department was formed with a lot of delay and when it was formed, Baba Saheb was ignored there too. During his tenure, the departments of many ministers were changed, many ministers were also given two-three portfolios, but Nehru never considered his name. He was not given a place in the main committees of the cabinet like Foreign Affairs, Defence Committee, Economic Affairs Committee. Baba Saheb was a renowned economist, he was expected to be included in the Economic Affairs Committee, which proved to be a disappointment.
Nehru neglects Dalits and backward classes
Baba Saheb was saddened by the neglect of Dalits, backward and deprived by the Nehru government. No measures were taken in the Constitution to protect Dalits and backward classes. The interests of these classes were to be protected by the executive government on the basis of the recommendations of a commission to be appointed by the President. Even after more than a year of the Constitution coming into force, the government did not even think of forming a commission. In 1946, when he was not in any post, Dr Ambedkar was very worried about Dalits and backward classes. The Nehru government also dropped out on the promises made by the British regarding constitutional safeguards for the Scheduled Castes. Baba Saheb was not satisfied with the provision made in the Constitution to protect the status of Scheduled Castes. Baba Saheb was saddened by the atrocities on Dalits because there was no improvement in it even after independence. He was very sad that nothing was being done on the issues of Dalits and they were neglected.
Pandit Nehru was only concerned about Muslims
Baba Saheb was very disturbed about the condition of Dalits and backward people in independent India. In his resignation letter on 10 October 1951, he wrote a bitter truth. He wrote that the entire time and attention of the Prime Minister is devoted to the security of Muslims. Baba Saheb said that he wants that Muslims should be given security whenever and wherever they need it, but are Muslims the only people who need security? Don’t the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Indian Christians need security? The Prime Minister did not show any concern for these communities. These deprived communities of the country need more care than Muslims.
We can say from the free thoughts of Baba Saheb that the Congress Party has been against the Dalits and the backward classes since the beginning.
Insult to the Constitution Maker
The Congress party always tried to humiliate Baba Saheb. He had to face neglect throughout his life. Congress used all its power to stop him from entering the Constituent Assembly. When Baba Saheb contested the Lok Sabha elections from Mumbai in 1952, Nehru went to his election twice and protested. Baba Saheb lost the election to his former colleague Kajolkar by 14,374 votes. It is also worth noting that about 78,000 votes were declared invalid in that election. Similarly, Congress again made Baba Saheb lose the Bhandara Lok Sabha by-election in 1954 .
Not only this, even after Baba Saheb’s Mahaparinirvan, Congress did not allow his picture to be put up in the Central Hall of Parliament, not awarded him with ‘Bharat Ratna’. When Vishwanath Pratap Singh became the Prime Minister in 1989 with the support of Bharatiya Janata Party, then on the suggestion of Hon’ble Atal Bihari Vajpayee ji and senior BJP leaders, Baba Saheb was given ‘Bharat Ratna’ and his portrait was placed in the Central Hall on 14 April1990.
Efforts of BJP government to honour Baba Saheb
In the year 2014, Shri Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister of India. He initiated ‘Panchtirtha’ at Janmabhoomi (Mhow, Madhya Pradesh), Shiksha Bhoomi (London), Deeksha Bhoomi (Nagpur), Mahaparinirvan Bhoomi (Delhi), Chaitya Bhoomi (Mumbai). The Congress party governments have only insulted Baba Saheb.
Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi started celebrating 26 November 2015 as ‘Constitution Day’. Congress also objected to this. They said that when 26 January is celebrated as Republic Day, then there is no need to celebrate ‘Constitution Day’ on 26 November. Now by celebrating the Constitution Day, the Constitution maker Bharat Ratna Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar is honored and his contribution in the making of the Constitution is being conveyed to the people.
‘Jai Bhim, Jai Bharat’