60 years on, politicians discover Bhimrao Ambedkar

Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar is sworn in as law minister by President Rajendra Prasad as Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru looks on.

Going by full-page advertisements and huge hoardings about commemorative events to mark his 125th birth anniversary, like laying the foundation stone for Ambedkar Centre and frantic competition among political heavyweights to beat the deadline and reach his birthplace earlier than others, Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar has suddenly become the favourite son of India, be it the RSS or the BJP or the Congress. It seems surreal.

Nearly 60 years after his death on 6 December 1956, Ambedkar is being discovered. Is it ever too late to embrace and appropriate a national icon Not at all. What matters is the need of the hour. The timing.

Leaders who all their lives maintained a safe distance from the “harijan bastis” are making a bee line to have bhojans with the dalits, squatting on the ground in front of TV cameras and media reporters. What could be better proof of the emancipation of the dalits They will remain emancipated, at least, for 12 months till Ambedkar’s next birthday! Bharat Mata Ki Jai!

A prominent BJP leader, who was a Cabinet minister in the Atal Behari Vajpayee government, had mounted a scathing attack on Ambedkar, questioned his credentials as a nationalist and called him a “false god of the dalits”. Late Madhu Limaye stoutly defended Ambedkar, stressing that even Mahatma Gandhi, who differed with Ambedkar on several issues, never questioned his patriotism. Well-known historian Ram Chandra Guha, delivering a memorial lecture at the ICC a few years, asserted that in any honest national poll, Ambedkar will emerge as the most popular national leader.

He further said the popularity of most of the world leaders has gone considerably down after their passing away. But in the case of Ambedkar, just the opposite is true; he is more popular today than during his lifetime.

But it’s also a grim reality of the caste-ridden Hindu society that 95 per cent non-dalit students know little, if at all, about Ambedkar, though the politicians and lawyers quote him all the time to oppose or support a legal point.

For decades, he has been projected as a dalit leader who played a significant role in the drafting of India’s Constitution in his capacity as the chairman of the drafting committee. But he was much more: an intellectual and legal giant of his time, having written as many as three doctoral theses and obtained doctorates from Columbia University and LSE. He was an economist of eminence, having written his thesis on the problem of the Indian rupee.

But he will always be remembered as the boldest social thinker and reformer of his time who fought tirelessly for the emancipation of the downtrodden, having personally experienced the worst kind of humiliation, insults and discrimination from the upper caste Hindus on account of his low caste.

His revulsion led him to write his seminal book, The Annihilation of Caste.

Unlike Gandhi, who was not against the caste system per se and advocated major reforms in Hindu society, Ambedkar was firmly convinced that the pernicious caste system was beyond redemption. His decision to embrace Budhism in October 1956 was a reflection of his utter frustration and disillusionment with the brahmanical Hindu society which was not willing to let go of the exploitative, oppressive, unjust and degrading caste system and its impact. Alas, he lived outside the Hindu fold for less than two months.

His life holds out a universal message — Don’t let the adversities of life get the better of you; aim high and never give up, come what may.

For him, higher education was the biggest enabler; but for his intellectual and academic achievements, he wouldn’t have been accepted.

Fight for the larger good of people rather than for personal gains and comforts. Stand for the weak; give voice to the speechless, fight for their legitimate rights, oppose injustice in all forms and don’t hesitate to confront even the mightiest without any fear if you are convinced of the righteousness of your cause.

Have a broad vision and create institutional and legal frameworks to realise that. Inspire and awaken people so that each one of them fights for one’s rights and becomes an agent of change. Tall order! Not really, if one honestly and wholeheartedly commits to a cause.

All political parties are unabashedly vying to appropriate Ambedkar’s legacy, largely motivated by electoral calculations. But if they really wish to bring about a positive change in the lives of those whom he fought for all his life, they can help strive towards the following:

1. Set a time limit to eliminate untouchability completely; hand down severest punishment to perpetrators of this pernicious practice to deter others.

2. Those resorting to bonded labour should be sentenced to twenty years of rigorous imprisonment; it should be equated with slavery.

3. Child labour continues, thanks to a mindset blind to the needs of children and absence of shame in exploiting them. Ironically, in cities, the largest number of child labour employers are retired civil servants who have held high positions. Rescuing children must be accompanied with rehabilitation and schooling and financial provision for continuing studies.

4. Wherever incidents of attacks in dalit localities, burning of their huts/houses, rape of dalit women take place, both the DM and the SP should be suspended straight away; if such incidents occur thrice under the same officer, he /she must be dismissed for failure to prevent these crimes.

5. Those accused of physical violence and assault against the dalits should be tried in faster courts and guilty handed down deterrent punishment in six months.

6. To demolish the orchestrated propaganda that most jobs are being taken away by the dalits, let there be a White Paper giving full details of the recruitment of dalit candidates in the Civil Services through affirmative action since its inception; their total strength and the percentage of the total intake they constitute. The posts of the Cabinet Secretary, home secretary, defence secretary, commerce secretary, finance secretary, revenue secretary and petroleum secretary has never been assigned to a dalit officer in independent India.

7. Education being the most crucial enabler, let there be institutes funded by the government to train and prepare dalit students to compete and get admissions in prestigious institutions/universities/colleges/IITS etc.

8. Outpouring of respect for Dr Ambedkar and its massive display all over the country on April 14th for TV cameras must not remain a one-day tokenism. Eradication of poverty, exploitation, discrimination, injustice and violence against the weak and establishment of a just and inclusive society will be the greatest tribute to Ambedkar.

The writer is a former ambassador