Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Home Minister, told the Dominion Parliament today of the elaborate security measures that had been taken to protect Gandhiji’s life after the bomb outrage. He said that he and the police had pleaded with Gandhiji to allow persons attending the prayer meeting to be searched but in vain.
Sardar Patel added sorrowfully: “The weak spot both I and the police had apprehended was deceitfully and successfully exploited by the assassin and Gandhiji’s prophetic words that ‘if he had to die no precaution could save him’ came true.”
Before the bomb explosion there were at Birla House one head constable and four foot constables on duty. After the outrage there were one assistant sub-inspector of police, two head constables and 16 foot constables; and a plain clothes staff of one sub-inspector, four head constables and two constables all armed with revolvers. Three plain clothes men were stationed on the path leading to the prayer ground. A detachment of troops consisting of one N.-C.O. and about 20 men patrolled the compound.
Today’s sitting was mainly devoted to the first reading of the Minimum Wages Bill of Mr Jagjivan Ram as amended by the Select Committee. Many stirring speeches were made by labour leaders and Congress members in support of the measure; the only discordant note struck was by Mr B. Das who thought the measure was attempting to usher in a sort of Utopia. Among those who spoke were Mr Hariharnath Sastri, Dewan Chamanlal, Prof. Ranga, Mr Santhanam and Mr Saxena. They welcomed the measure and characterized it as revolutionary in that it opened the way for fixing minimum wages for ten million industrial and 70 million agricultural labourers.
The right note was, however, struck by the Labour Minister, Mr Jagjivan Ram, in replying to the debate. The Bill was revolutionary, he said, not because it attempted to do something for the industrial and agricultural labourer but because it attempted by this means to make the country self-sufficient in food. He also enunciated a principle to which the House wholeheartedly responded, namely, that no one’s labour shall be exploited and that if industry or agriculture could not be run without paying minimum wages then they must be subsidized.