NEW DELHI: Appropriation is an art, and when it comes to Dalit icon Dr B R Ambedkar, nobody can beat BJP at it. More so in this climate of Dalit unrest.
After Ambedkar memorials, Ambedkar circuits and Ambedkar libraries, the NDA government is nsuring the presence of this Dalit icon in the good old blue inland letters. He will be replacing late prime minister Indira Gandhi on the once ubiquitous Rs 2.50 inland letter.
“A decision on this has been arrived at by the Department of Post last month. It will be implemented in October when the Philatelic Advisory Committee will give its stamp of approval,’’ said an official with the department.
The committee, comprising known philatelists, cultural figures and political representatives, had decided to replace Indira Gandhi with a “yoga emblem” last year. Now, with the change in political climate in the wake of the Dalit unrest across the country, the department has had a change of heart.
The department has also decided to issue a series of “definitive’’ stamps after Ambedkar, Swami Vivekananda, revolutionary Bhagat Singh, Rabindranath Tagore, Subhash Chandra Bose, Vallabhbhai Patel, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Pandit Ravishankar, Bhimsen Joshi, M S Subbulakshmi, Mohammad Rafi and Kishore Kumar.
“The previous UPA government had limited the series to those of the Gandhi-Nehru family. The NDA government has decided to include eminent people of all ideological, cultural and musical streams and revolutionaries in definitive postage stamps,” said the official.
“By including icons of members of the Gandhi-Nehru family only, the Congress party played politics. By including Ambedkar along with Shyama Prasad Mukherjee and Deen Dayal Upadhyay, BJP is playing politics,’’ said a member of Indian Philatelic Congress.
The NDA government at the Centre has been trying to harness Ambedkar’s legacy for a while. To begin with, it has been decided to rename the JNU Central Library as B R Ambedkar Library. Interestingly, this demand was made by BJP’s student wing, Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad.
“If BJP is to win over Dalits, they have to attract the Dalit intelligentia. This is because Dalits as a community have a tendency to revere intellectuals and blindly follow whatever they say,” said a member of a BJP-affiliated think-tank that advises the government on matters related to Dalits and other communities.