http://www.hindustantimes.com/News-Feed/RajdeepSardesai/Not-just-idle-worship/Article1-759697.aspx
Not just idle worship
Rajdeep Sardesai, Hindustan Times
October 21, 2011
At a time when Mayawati's Dalit memorials have sparked off a raging
debate, it might be instructive to consider what the original Dalit
icon Babasaheb Ambedkar would have done in a similar situation. What
is almost certain is that, unlike the Uttar Pradesh chief minister,
he would not have
ordered the construction of his own statues. A fierce rationalist,
Ambedkar disliked all forms of political idol worship. "In politics,
hero worship is a sure road to degradation and eventual dictatorship,"
he said in a seminal speech before the Constituent Assembly in 1949.
Sixty-two years later, there is little doubt that Mayawati has emerged
as the great dictator of Uttar Pradesh, someone who controls India's
most populous state with an iron fist. Which is why she can insist on
having her own life-size statue alongside an Ambedkar, Phule, Shahu
and Kanshi Ram. Which is also why she can brazenly claim that the Rs
675 crore spent on the Dalit Prerna Sthal has come through party
donations when the fact is the UP government has budgeted a whopping
Rs 3,000 crore on Dalit memorials and parks across the state. This,
in a state where 38% Dalits have never attended schools, where 70% is
still the estimated school dropout rate among Dalits, and where
hundreds of children die of encephalitis every year because of a lack
of healthcare facilities.
Surely, Ambedkar, for whom education was the biggest weapon of
empowerment, would have chided Mayawati for her misplaced priorities.
He would have been equally critical of the personal wealth which the
CM seems to have acquired through questionable means, and might have
winced at reading that Mayawati spent Rs 51 crore of public money in
renovating her official bungalow, apart from acquiring prime
properties across the national capital.
Not that Ambedkar lived a frugal lifestyle. His wealth was acquired
through legal and scholastic prowess, not through treating the
political system as a vehicle for self-aggrandisement. As his
biographer Dhananjay Keer writes, "Ambedkar's house was not a detached
villa that gave you the appearance of seclusion. His vast library, his
rich clothes, his enormous pens, his grand car, the numerous varieties
of shoes and the rare collection of pictures were the living marks of
his conquering personality." Mayawati is unlikely to share Ambedkar's
love for books, but if handbags are her fashion accessory, then so was
the fountain pen in the case of Babasaheb. If for Gandhi the loin
cloth symbolised his asceticism, the three-piece suit was Ambedkar's
style statement to tell the world that his origins were no hindrance
to rising up the social ladder.
To those who are critical of the manner in which Mayawati celebrates
her birthdays, it needs to be stressed that Ambedkar's birthdays too
were occasions for public celebration with his followers taking out
processions with his pictures in palanquins. In a sense, the need for
such public ceremonies stems from a conviction that it is necessary to
show that if caste Hindus can have their own gods and ceremonies, then
so must Dalits. Ambedkar may not have been comfortable with idolatry,
but he did not entirely reject its symbolic value either on such
occasions.
Which is why the personality cult that Mayawati has built around
herself cannot be entirely scoffed at. The Indian super-elite - many
of whom will not think twice before spending crores on weddings - may
be contemptuous of Mayawati's millions, but there is a distinct method
in the seeming madness of the Bahujan Samaj Party leader. If the
fortress around Sonia Gandhi's personal life heightens her mystique,
then the imperious style of functioning of Mayawati gives her an
empress-like status among her followers. If there are dozens of
memorials in the name of the Congress's first family and freedom
heroes, then Mayawati appears equally determined to create her own
pantheon of Dalit legends. And if the Sangh parivar can aspire to
build a Ram mandir in Ayodhya as a symbol of religio-political
identity, then Mayawati, too, sees her Ambedkar parks as an assertion
of Dalit identity.
Seen from that competitive political perspective, it is possible that
Ambedkar may even have grudgingly approved of Mayawati's grand
projects. Ambedkar's great dream always was to acquire political
dominance for the Dalits even while seeking an end to caste
discrimination. But the keys to the gates of power remained firmly
locked during his lifetime. The Independent Labour Party that he
formed had only limited success and he lost the first general election
in 1952 as an independent. That he became the country's first law
minister was only due to the vision and generosity of Mohandas Gandhi,
but his political fortunes never matched his intellect. Indeed, it was
his frustration with an upper caste dominated socio-political system
that eventually led him to embrace Buddhism.
Contrast that with Mayawati who has clearly shown that it is possible
for a Dalit woman to make it to one of the most powerful political
positions in the country entirely on her own terms. If Ambedkar was
the ultimate constitutionalist, Mayawati, guided in her early years by
the equally redoubtable Kanshi Ram, has been the consummate
politician, breaking and striking alliances with ease. The ethical
standards employed in achieving power may be deeply troubling, but in
the political akhara of UP, norms and rules have been routinely bent
by the principal players. Which is why Mayawati's achievement of being
the daughter of a post office clerical employee who rose to becoming a
four-time chief minister of the state is quite remarkable. A Mayawati
statue next to the architect of the Constitution may seem
incongruous today. But many years later, it may well become a place of
pilgrimage and inspiration for millions of Dalits.
Rajdeep Sardesai is Editor-in-Chief, IBN 18. The views expressed by
the author are personal.
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