On 5th November 1948, Shri H. V. Kamath [CP Berar General] at the Constituent Assembly spoke as follows;
“On one thing I join issue with Dr. Ambedkar. He was pleased to refer to the villages – I am quoting from a press report in the absence of official copy – as “sinks of localism and dens of ignorance, narrow mindedness and communalism” and he also laid at the door of a certain Metcalfe our pathetic faith in village communities. Sir, I may say that it is not owing to Metcalfe but owing to your far greater man who has liberated us in recent time, our Master and the Father of our Nation, that this love of our, from the villages has grown, our faith in the village republic and our rural communities as grown and we have cherished it with all our heart. It is due to Mahatma Gandhi, Sir, it is due to Sardar Patel and Pandit Nehru, Nethaji Bose that we have come love our village folk. It all the deference to Dr. Ambedkar, I differ from him in this regard, his attitude, yesterday was typical of the urban highbrow and that is going to be our attitude towards the village folks, and it can only say God save us if he do not cultivate sympathy and love and affection for our villages and rural folks. I do not see how we can uplift our Country. Mahatma Gandhi taught us an almost last mantra that he gave the last days of his life to strive for Panchayat Raj. If Dr. Ambedkar cannot see his way to accept this, I do not see that remedy are panacea he has got for uplifting our villages. – Sir, it was with considerable pain that I heard Dr. Ambedkar refer to our villages in that fashion with dislike, is not with contempt perhaps fault lies with the composition of the Drafting Committee among the members of which no one with the sole exception of Sriyut Munshi has taken any active part in the struggle for our Country’s freedom.”
Comment: In spite of such clamor by the Speaker the lot of villages have never improved.