Amit Shah's statement in the parliament on Dr BR Ambedkar, God and Heaven on December 18, 2024 is neither spontaneous nor a slip of tongue.
It is, in fact, part of the long-drawn-out Rastriya Swayamsevak Sangh strategy to de-spiritualise Ambedkar and put him in the basket of political leaders of India — that too in the company of Dalit leaders of India. The RSS wants to erase Ambedkar's long-lasting influence, since he embraced Buddhism in 1956. They are very worried about his future impact on all social forces who have started showing reverence to Ambedkar as a liberator from caste oppression and economic exploitation.
As of now, Ambedkar is God to millions of Indians. With the OBC/Dalit/Adivasi reservations taking deeper roots, Ambedkar’s image is moving into the house of every Dalit/Shudra/Adivasi who has got a job through reservation. Even the Economically Weaker Sections reservation is because of his ideology, though RSS/BJP have used it to satisfy the upper castes.
The massive involvement of not just Dalits, but also OBCs and Adivasis, in the installation of Ambedkar statues has shaken RSS/BJP and made them work out multiple strategies to de-escalate Ambedkar's socio-spiritual image.
Prakash Ambedkar and some other Dalit intellectuals, for their own political reasons, might be trying to equate Congress and BJP in their courting of Ambedkar. But it is indeed the Hindu Rashtra kind of spiritual nationalism that Ambedkar has become a major threat to. Congress, it must be underlined, was never party to this ideology.
Also, during two important stages, the Congress allowed Ambedkar to play game-changing roles.
One was in the writing of the Constitution. The RSS/BJP leadership, in contrast, did not come to terms with Ambedkar's Constitution, though they were participating in elections through their political wing Jana Sangh/BJP till 1999, when they first began to rule India from Delhi.
In subsequent years, their intellectuals like Arun Shourie went about saying that Ambedkar was a false God who never authored the Constitution. The Congress, on the other hand, never publicly denied his architectural role in the making of the Constitution.
We must also remember that the very same Nehru Government, which nominated him to lead the team drafting the Constitution, allowed him to embrace Buddhism by mobilising lakhs of people with eight strong vows of anti-Sanatana Dharma in 1956. If the RSS/BJP were in power at that time, they would not have allowed Ambedkar to do either of these.
Now Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge have taken a strong position on Ambedkar's Constitution vs Manu Dharma Shastra, caste census and the removal of the 50 percent cap on reservation.
This situation is what forced Amit Shah, who is a key negotiator between the RSS and BJP, to make the statement against Ambedkar.
Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi in blue attires holding Ambedkar's portrait shifted the gear of their relationship with the father of the Constitution — to the context of the threat to the present liberative democratic Constitution that enshrined universal egalitarian values.
Understanding the implications of Amit Shah’s statement in the Rajya Sabha, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, "We would not have been here (in power) without Ambedkar." Amit Shah had also addressed a press conference that his words were twisted. But then what is there to twist in his words?
The Dalits/Adivasis and a large number of OBCs consider Ambedkar their God. Amit Shah separated Ambedkar and God without specifying which God he was referring to.
His spiritual reference to Ambedkar, God and Heaven must be understood in the background of the tension between two slogans being used across the country — Jai Bhim, Jai Sriram. These two slogans represent two different world views about God of Equality and God of Inequality on earth and in heaven. A visible conflict is spreading into the social layers of India. Ambedkarites across the country chanting Jai Bhim, and RSS/BJP forces chanting Jai Sriram.
The Indian Shudra/Dalit/Adivasi masses did not understand the politics of heaven before the present Constitution came into existence. But now they understand. Amit Shah is referring to the heaven of Manu dharma with a force called Yama dharma to implement that dharma to maintain graded caste-based inequality in heaven too. Ambedkar burnt down that heaven and constructed a new heaven of equality of all humans, where caste stands annihilated.
The RSS and its ideological leadership working in BJP and other wings have two strategies — one to keep the Sanatana Dharma completely intact and second to garner votes from the Dalit/OBC/Adivasi forces, who are the victims of that Sanatana Dharma. Sanatana Dharma in ancient and medieval India was nothing but Varna Dharma. They want votes for coming to power in Delhi and in the states and at the same time Ambedkarism must be in check.
However, the educated forces among the oppressed castes understand this twofold strategy of the RSS now to some degree.
The debate on the Constitution in the parliament has now brought the clash of cultures out into the open. No Congress leader earlier could show both Ambedkar's present Constitution, which gives equal rights to all citizens, irrespective of caste and gender and Manu's Constitution that RSS and Hindu Mahasabha leaders like Golwalkar and Savarkar held worthy to be adopted, at least in parts, after the British left, in two hands to tell the country that the RSS/BJP actually want Manu's Constitution to come back.
Rahul Gandhi did that. Hence the anger of Amit Shah broke out and he told the house that Ambedkar is not God and his Constitution is not divine law. This stems from the belief that Manu dharma is the divine law, though he did not say that openly.
Subsequently for the first time the lawns of parliament witnessed a violent scuffle. There is burning anger against Rahul Gandhi for carrying Manu dharama Shastra and the present Constitution into the house and telling the nation how they differ in the ideals of human equality, gender justice and creating a heaven of equality for all on this very land, called India.
We will have to wait and see where this battle that started in the very parliament house, which is a temple of democracy, leads the nation.
(Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd is a political theorist, social activist and author. His latest book is The Shudra Rebellion).
* Views are personal