DR. AMBEDKARS 125TH
BIRTH ANNIVERSARY – THE REAL TRIBUTE
All
newspapers on 15th April, 2015 were full of all parties in the
country, though normally at each others throat, vying with each other in their
full throated praise for Dr. Ambedkar as one of the greatest Indian leader of
the country. The tribute to Dr. Ambedkar is fully deserved, but one is skeptic
of the genuineness and sincerity of this by most of these parties. Though the
average person in the country unhesitatingly rightly accepts him as the leader
in framing our Constitution, all parties except the Socialist party of Jaya
Prakash Narain, Dr. Lohia, ignored rather reviled his contribution.
Dr.
Ambedkar was many facets personality which is quite rare. His massive treatise
on Annihilation of Caste was the subject of ridicule by RSS, the ancestor of
B.J. Party. Even now Modi’s Government open encouragement of RSS in its campaign
against the Minorities especially Muslims, and their lowly behaviors towards
Dalits can never allow them to bask in Dr. Ambedkars social philosophy.
Congress
party proclaims that Dr. Ambedkar will be remembered as a congressman –
ironically it opposed him in his election to Lok Sabha in 1954. For Congress to
claim that it made him the Chairperson of the Drafting Committee of the
Constitution is factually wrong – it was only on Mahatma Gandhi insistence that
Dr. Ambedkar headed the Drafting Committee. Moreover servility to the concept
of a leader, as shown by the awe mysteriously being created on Rahuls rebirth
so as take on the leadership of Congress, is in the similar vein of a godly
saint emerging from his cave of meditation to take on the battle against the
demon of all other parties. This servile and undemocratic approach of Bhakti
has been condemned by Dr. Ambedkar thus; “The second thing we must do is to
observe the caution which John Stuart Mill has given to all who are interested
in the maintenance of democracy, namely, not ‘to lay their liberties at the
feet of even a great man, or to trust him with powers which enable him to
subvert their institutions’. There is nothing wrong in being grateful to great
men who have rendered lifelong services to the country. But there are limits to
gratefulness. As has been well said by the Irish partriot, Daniel O’ Connel, no
man can be grateful at the cost of his honour, no women can be grateful at the
cost of her chastity and no nation can be grateful at the cost of its liberty.
This caution is far more necessary in the case of India than in the case of any
other country in the world. Bhakti in religion may be a road to the
salvation of the soul. But, in politics, Bhakti or hero-worship is a sure road
to degradation and to eventual dictatorship”. (emphasis supplied)
The
Mayawatis like false followers of Dr. Ambedker want to deify him and in the bargain to hope to conceal their own
misdeeds of corruption by trying to instill the fear amongst their co caste
holders and try to mislead them by suggesting that their betrayal of the cause
of Dalits should not be exposed for the sake of unity of caste. How cheap.
I am quite worried at a recent trend
of debate and discussion in newspapers, T.V. raising question about the need
for reservation of Dalits and OBC and even wrongly attributing that Dr.
Ambedkar was against long time reservation. To me this thinking is heretically
divisive. We must honestly recognize that; Dalits have to be
brought out of not only the financial but social outcasteism to which
they have been condemned for centuries.
It was only
the Socialist Party of Jaya Prakash Narayan and Dr. Lohia which found a kindred
spirit in Dr. Ambedkar philosophy as is clear from the writing of Dr. Lohia in
the fifties where in he wrote. “The gap between the hundred million Dvijas on the one side,
and the two hundred million Dalits on the other is so wide that no political
party has as yet undertaken to fill it up. It is futile to talk of
revolutionary politics unaccompanied by efforts for social change and conscious
effort to bridge the gulf between Dviya leadership and the Dalits.”
In the pursuit of this objective Dr.
Lohia on behalf of Socialist Party had correspondence to work together for this
common goal. A meeting was also fixed between the two, but unfortunately Dr.
Ambedkar died before the meeting could take place. The sorrow of Dr. Lohia was
expressed in a letter addressed to Socialist leader Madhu Limaye wherein he
wrote “you can well understand that my sorrow at Dr. Ambedkar’s
sudden death. Dr. Ambedkar was to me
a great man in Indian politics and apart from Gandhiji is as great as the
greatest of caste Hindu leaders.” (emphasis supplied) This fact has always
given me solace and confidence that the caste system of Hinduism can one day be
destroyed. Dr. Lohia had expressed the hope “that Scheduled Caste Federation
Forum of Dr. Ambedkar will contribute to have the symbol of Dr. Ambedkar for
homage and his independence …………. Dr. Ambedkar who would be leader of all
Indians and not Dalits only”.
The homage
paid by Modi government and UPA Government is ironic considering its pro corporate
proximity and displacing peasantry to build industrial corridors and purporting
to charm the simple public with one lakh crore Bullet train built by Japan –
this clearly shows its total insensitivity and reminds one of Marie
Antoinette’s remarks which led to French Revolution, namely “If there is no
bread why do not masses eat cakes.” Let me in this context remind Modi and his
admireus of the warning given by Dr. Ambedkar on conclusion of the Constitute
Assembly on 26th November 1949. “In politics we will be recognizing the principle of one
man one vote and one vote one value. In our social and economic life, we shall
by reason of our social and economic structure, continue to deny the principle
of one man one value. How long shall we continue to live this life of
contradictions? How long shall we continue to deny equality in our social and
economic life? If we continue to deny it for long, we will do so only by
putting our political democracy in peril. We must remove this contradiction at
the earliest possible moment else those who suffer from inequality will blow up
the structure of democracy which this Constituent Assembly has so laboriously
built up”.
The best homage to Dr. Ambedkar will
be to heed solemnly this warning and act accordingly.
Rajindar Sachar
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