Will Ambedkar's real legatee stand up?
Yogesh Pawar | Friday, December 9, 2011
There can be no doubt about how farsighted Dr Babsaheb Ambedkar's
immense contribution to the polity was when he asked Dalits to shika,
sanghatit vha ani sangharsh kara (educate, organise and agitate).
Wonder what he would make of the competitive clamour by various
political parties, groups and factions in trying to prove how they are
more Ambedkarite than the others around December 6 every year.
It began with the Republican Party of India (RPI-A) chief Ramdas
Athawale's warning of an agitation if the Indu Mills land in central
Mumbai was not allotted for the construction of an Ambedkar memorial.
"If the land is not allotted by December 6, the death anniversary of
Dr Ambedkar, the RPI will launch a protest against the state
government from December 13," he said.
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Not wanting to let Athawale hog all the credit, activists of
Ambedkar's grandson Anand Raj's Republican Sena and his elder brother,
Prakash's Bharipa Bahujan Mahasangh, made efforts to break police
barricades at the mill compound last Tuesday.
The 12 other factions of the RPI have also made such demands at
various points. In fact the intense rivalry among the many 'leaders'
to project themselves as 'the' community leader has led to some rather
disturbing shows of strength.
On July, 11, 1997, when police fired on Dalits protesting the
desecration of an Ambedkar statue at Ramabai Nagar, Ghatkopar, 10
people died. Many may remember visuals and photographs of how Athawale
was set upon, attacked and stripped, leading him to flee, horror writ
large on his face.
What has led to many smirks among political observers is the way the
Shiv Sena too has been making supportive noises on the memorial. While
its new-found love can perhaps be explained bythe saffron party's
tie-up with Athawale in the run-up to the Mumbai civic polls, surely
sainiks haven't forgotten their party's stand on renaming Dadar.
At the height of the Sena's campaign to rename the Victoria Terminus
as Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, then railway minister Ram Vilas
Paswan had set the proverbial cat among the pigeons. He suggested that
Dadar be renamed Chaityabhoomi. While this found favour with Dalits,
the Sena newspaper Saamna went hammer and tongs at the suggestion.
I don't know whether Athawale's aggressive posturing against the UPA
will cut ice with anyone, considering how thick he was with them till
recently. Known to be very close to Sharad Pawar till he lost the 2009
election, he broke the alliance with the NCP-Congress in 2011 only
after realising that political rehab through the Rajya Sabha route
wasn't happening.
Yet when it comes to hypocrisy, the country's oldest party takes the
cake, dough and the bakery.
The Congress actively worked to ensure Ambedkar's defeat from Byculla
to ensure its own candidate VB Gandhi won. How can one expect them to
do anything to preserve the memory of Dr Babasaheb, who stood his own
even against the Mahatma?
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