New Delhi: After Bhimrao Ambedkar, the BJP-led NDA government has now turned towards Babu Jagjivan Ram, former deputy prime minister of India, to woo dalits. The Modi government now plans to come out with a feature film on the life of Babu Jagjivan Ram and would also be requesting the state governments to include a chapter on his life in their curriculum.
While Jagjivan Ram, one of the tallest dalit leader, had left the Congress and formed Congress for Democracy Party to align with the Janata Party post Emergency in 1977, his daughter and former Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar remains a Congress loyalist. It could be mentioned here that Ms Kumar was the Congress-led UPA’s presidential candidate and had unsuccessfully contested against NDA’s Ramnath Kovind.
Facing flak over spurt in dalit atrocities across the country, the ruling BJP and the government has been trying hard to reach out to the dalits through various programmes and events, including promoting Ambedkar’s legacy in a big way.
The BJP, which managed to woo dalit votebank during Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls, had to face hard time in Gujarat where dalits were miffed growing atrocities against them, including the Una flogging incident. Dalits constitute a significant votebank in poll bound state of Karnataka, where both the ruling Congress and the opposition BJP are engaged in aggressive wooing of the community.
The BJP now intends to woo the dalits by highlighting Jagjivan Ram’s “disillusionment” with Congress and his “denouncement” of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi after Emergency. The Modi government has also decided to organise Babu Jagjivan Ram Lecture every year and a financial scheme in his name for “organising memorial events in connection with celebration of birth/death anniversary of great saints and other eminent personalities.”
The decisions were taken in the general body meeting of the Babu Jagjivan Ram National Foundation, an autonomous organisation under the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.
