MUMBAI: He carries a famous name. His grandfather was one of India’s iconic visionaries. His followers call him sarsenanai (commander-in-chief) of his party, the Republican Sena. Anandraj Ambedkar, Babasaheb Ambedkar’s grandson and the youngest son of Yeshwant “Bhaiyyasaheb” Ambedkar is giving Maharashtra’s Congress-NCP ruling combine the jitters before the municipal elections.
The demand for an international Ambedkar memorial has been gathering dust in Maharashtra for long. On December 6, Babasaheb’s death anniversary, Anandraj and party cadres stormed the premises of the defunct Indu textile mill at Dadar demanding the entire 12.5 acres of mill land be used to construct the memorial. It’s situated near Chaityabhoomi where Babasaheb was cremated. “On the lines of the Statue of Liberty, we want a 200-foot tall statue of Babasaheb on a 200-foot tall pedestal called the Statue of Equality,” says Anandraj, adding that the memorial could also have a library and museum. The Republican Sena has stationed Buddhist monks and activists on the premises 24/7 and has also installed statues of Ambedkar and Lord Buddha. The Congress-NCP combine facing the corporation elections in Mumbai, Thane, Nashik and Nagpur—which have a substantial chunk of Dalit voters—has serious cause for worry.
Dalit politics in Maharashtra, the home state of Ambedkar and Bahujan icons like Mahatma Jotiba Phule and Chhatrapati Shahu, is intensely fractured. Factions of the Republican Party of India (RPI) are vying for the support of the Dalit Buddhists who form the largest chunk of scheduled castes. The Buddhists are among the most organised, assertive and militant caste groups in the state. They have used education as a means of upward mobility. They once fought pitched street battles with the Shiv Sena and are seen as the only force that can stand up to the Sena in the use of raw muscle power.
Dalit politics in Maharashtra has two big leaders: Anandraj’s elder brother Prakash Ambedkar and Ramdas Athavale, both former Lok Sabha MPs. Prakash, former Bharatiya Republican Paksha-Bahujan Mahasangh (BRP-BMS) MP from Akola in Vidarbha, is known for the ‘Akola Pattern’: uniting Dalits, OBCs, tribals and other weaker sections. His party has two legislators in the Maharashtra Assembly. The redoubtable Athavale has tied up with his erstwhile foes, the Shiv Sena and BJP after breaking his two-decade long association with the Congress-NCP. His supporters attribute his defeat in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls from Shirdi in Ahmednagar to sabotage by the local Congress and NCP leaders. His decision to enter the ‘Shivshakti-Bhimshakti’ rainbow alliance is a matter of intense debate in the community. Anandraj, who heads the ‘Bouddhajan Panchayat’ (a Buddhist organisation), is the latest entrant into the scene.
“In case the Congress does not comply with our demand for a memorial, we will campaign against them wherever the elections are held,” Anandraj told The Sunday Standard, adding that they would also take a stance against the ruling combine in Mumbai and “expose” it in case the Congress sought to “throttle” the issue. He says his first priority is to “socially mobilise the Ambedkarite movement” and take Babasaheb’s message to the masses, especially the youth. He claims that though his sympathies lie with BRP-BMS, he devotes his energies to the Republican Sena.
Anandraj, an engineer with an MA in management studies, contested the 2004 Assembly polls unsuccessfully from Bhandup in Mumbai as a BRP-BMS candidate. He denies he isn’t taking the political plunge. “I have no such plans now but in case the Congress insults Babasaheb, we will campaign against them,” he says. “The Dalit movement lacked proper leadership after Babasaheb and hence lost its way. If it had, then Maharashtra would have witnessed a political miracle taking place like in Uttar Pradesh”.
His associates say that Anandraj, who is in the construction business, has always been socially active. He was the Mumbai chief of the BRP-BMS, and one of his brother’s key strategists. Republican Sena cadres laud him as one of the few Dalit leaders who has reached out to other social sections apart from his natural core constituency of Dalits and Buddhists. “He can gel with the smallest of workers,” said Ashok Sonawane, an OBC activist, and Republican Sena’s state secretary, adding that a section of other backwards movements was also aligned with him. His associates say Anandraj has a keen political sense and is more outgoing than his brother.
The Maharashtra state government has also sought land from the Centre for an Ambedkar memorial. After Anandraj’s agitation, Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, seeking a quick decision. The NCP, which earlier managed to attract the Dalit vote due to its association with Athavale, had also called for the Dadar railway station to be renamed Chaityabhoomi, a demand opposed by the Shiv Sena and MNS. Athavale has demanded the Mumbai Central Railway station be named after Babasaheb Ambedkar.
However, there are some who are sceptical about Anandraj’s entry into the already fragmented Dalit politics. Surendra Jondhale, Professor and Head, Department of Civics and Politics at the University of Mumbai, points to the recurrent electoral defeat of the RPI factions. He says agitational politics are taking a backseat. “(Anandraj) does not have a political base or a social base and he lacks a constituency,” says Jondhale, however admitting that his act had made him come across as a “bold and courageous” player.