Some people are trying to create a controversy about the BJP and the NDA government celebrating the 125th birth anniversary of Dr BR Ambedkar. They say the BJP is trying to claim the legacy of Dr Ambedkar. Let me make it very clear that Dr Ambedkar’s legacy belongs to the nation and not to any party. But it is strange that the Congress claims his legacy. It says the BJP is politicising the issue. Let the Congress explain what have they done to keep the legacy of Ambedkar alive when in power at the Centre and in Maharashtra. Not a single book was republished. None of his writings, that were kept under wraps, has been made public. The greatest injustice ever done to Ambedkar when he was alive was done by the Congress. Let us examine how the Congress treated him.
Dr Ambedkar was never a member of the Congress. He was elected to the Constituent Assembly from West Bengal where the Muslim League was ruling. The Congress did not send him to the Constituent Assembly from any of the states in which it was in power. Dr Ambedkar founded the independent Labour Party in 1936 and contested the Bombay Central Assembly elections in 1937. His party contested 15 reserved and 4 general seats and won 11 reserved and 3 general seats. Dr Ambedkar could not find a place among the 296 members initially sent to the Constituent Assembly. It happened after a Dalit leader from East Bengal withdrew, paving the way for Dr Ambedkar to enter the Constituent Assembly as a member in his own right. He was forced to seek election from Bengal, a province he did not have much connection with because he lacked the requisite support in his home province of Bombay. Dr Rajendra Prasad and Sardar Patel were closely involved in the effort to ensure that Ambedkar remained in the Constituent Assembly. Dr Ambedkar became a member of the Viceroy’s Executive Council (1942-46) when the Viceroy recognized his talent and leadership and made him a member despite opposition from the Congress.
Mahatma Gandhi, Dr Rajendra Prasad and Sardar Patel supported the idea of Ambedkar heading the Drafting Committee of the Constitution but Pt. Nehru was not keen. Even when he took oath as the country’s Law Minister in 1947 after independence, it was as an independent member of the Central Legislative Assembly and not as a Congress member.
He became the Law Minister because of Mahatma Gandhi’s insistence. Gandhiji insisted that two people, namely, Dr Ambedkar and Syama Prasad Mukherjee should be included in the Cabinet. Baba Saheb differed with Nehru on many policies including several amendments to the Constitution. In September, 1951, he resigned from the Nehru Cabinet — disgusted and disappointed. In his resignation letter of 27th September, 1951, Ambedkar revealed that Nehru never trusted him and scrupulously avoided giving him important portfolios.
He then contested the Lok Sabha election from Bombay North. But the Congress opposed him and put up a candidate and ensured his defeat. The Congress candidate, Narayan Kajrolkar, had been Dr Ambedkar’s assistant once. In the 1954 Lok Sabha by-election in Bhandara district of Maharashtra, the Congress did the same thing to defeat him. Even after his death, senior Congress leaders, including the then PM Nehru, did not attend his funeral. This is the respect the Congress party had shown for Dr Ambedkar. He was never given his due. It is evident from his grandson’s statement: “Congress never did BR Ambedkar justice, why recall him now?”
Dr Ambedkar had views on important issues different from the Congress party. He was against Article 370. He drafted Article 365A under which Kashmir would be like any other state of the Union. No single institution was named after Ambedkar by the Congress. Even SC and ST student UGC Scholarships were not named after him; they were named after Rajiv Gandhi! Even the highest civilian award, Bharat Ratna, was conferred on Dr Ambedkar in 1990 by the VP Singh government supported by the BJP and not during the Congress regime.
Dr Ambedkar’s portrait in the Central Hall was also unveiled in April, 1990 during the BJP supported VP Singh Government. Dr Ambedkar died in December, 1956. For a person who is considered the architect of the Indian Constitution, why did the Congress take more than 10 years to erect his statue in Parliament premises in April 1967?
Dr Ambedkar, though born in an ordinary family, carved a niche for himself on the basis of his brilliant capabilities and intellect braving all shortages, neglect and insults of his time. He was a great social warrior. He was a nationalist to the core. He considered the inequalities in the Hindu society a symbol of civilizational lacunae and dedicated his life to eradicate this incompleteness. He single-handedly lifted millions out of deprivation to dignity. He was fighting against the dichotomies, contradictions and evils of the society and not the Hindu society and civilization itself. He stood for total annihilation of caste. He was a modern thinker, a practitioner of pragmatic politics.
Dr Ambedkar was truly a national leader and his nationalism was not confined to just transfer of power from the British to the Indians but permanent reconstruction of the nation. In one word ‘nation-building’ can be considered his core project. He considered the society and nation above everything else. He was a great economist with a Ph.D in Economics and thesis on “The Problem of Rupee: Its Origin and its Solution.” He played a key role in setting up of the Reserve Bank of India in 1935. Dr Ambedkar opined in the Constituent Assembly on 15th November, 1949 — “at this point of time, Socialist pattern of governance is good, but people are free to decide a better way than socialism to organize the society. What should be the policy of the State, how the society should be organized in its social and economic side are matters which must be decided by the people themselves according to time and circumstances.” He opposed the term socialist and secular in the Preamble of the Constitution. His personality, caliber and hard work were realized by everybody during the making of the Constitution.
TT Krishnamachari highlighted the role of Ambedkar as the Chairman of the Drafting Committee of the Constitution. Of the seven members nominated to the Drafting Committee, one had resigned and was replaced. One died and was not replaced. One was away in America and another person was engaged in state affairs. One or two people were far away from Delhi for health reasons. Ultimately, the burden of drafting the Constitution fell on Dr Ambedkar.
Dr. Ambedkar said, “if we as a society continue to deny equality in our social and economic life, then this could one day become a threat to our political democracy.” Now, the NDA government has decided to launch Gram Uday to Bharat Uday Abhiyan from 14th to 24th April, 2016 to generate nationwide efforts to increase social harmony across villages, strengthen Panchayati Raj, promote rural development and foster farmers’ progress. Social harmony is the need of the hour because of the policies pursued by the Congress regime for more than 50 years. They have always wanted to keep Dalits separate and use them as vote-banks. It is because of vote-bank-politics and divisive tendencies that the atmosphere in the country remained like that. Instead of trying to work for social harmony and create a casteless society, the Congress encouraged casteism to pursue its vote-bank-politics.
Some people are raking up Rohith Vemula’s unfortunate death. Who created that kind of atmosphere? Congress is to be blamed because it ruled the country for more than 50 years. Even during the last 10 years of Congress rule, 10 boys committed suicide in HCU, some of whom were Dalits. No voice was raised by the Congress then. Gandhi, Patel, Ambedkar, Savarkar do not belong to any one political party. They belong to the nation. When we celebrate legacies of our leaders, we should learn from their legacies. Dr Baba Saheb Ambedkar was for annihilation of caste, common civil code, abrogation of Article 370. Social equality, ending all sorts of discrimination and economic and political empowerment for the deprived sections would be the real tribute to the great son of this great country and it is moving in that direction.
The author is the Union Urban Development and Parliamentary Affairs Minister