“It is so sad that the parties have understood that just by chanting Jai Bhim, putting up Baba Saheb’s photo and statue, showing his drama, celebrating his birth anniversary, 200 million Scheduled Caste votes of India can be taken. Who does such a cheap deal? Make your ambition big. Wish big.
By Ashok Dash
Senior journalist Dilip Mandal raised this question on social media last days. The question is valid, and it is also necessary to discuss it because the month of April is Ambedkar month. People all over the world remember Babasaheb, repeat his written words. Often, when people remember Babasaheb, they definitely say one thing that Babasaheb had forbidden worship of a person. But the political and social scenario as of now, that person has come and settled on worship. For many people, the definition of Ambedkarite movement is becoming that the louder the ‘Jai Bhim’ chant, the bigger the Ambedkarite. The bigger the poster of Babasaheb is put up, the bigger the follower of Babasaheb. And yes, if the one who chants Jai Bhim and puts up posters of Babasaheb is a non-Dalit, then the Dalit community gets excited.
Even if a person from Dalit society turns his body blue, devotes his life to Babasaheb’s mission, he does not get any special respect in the eyes of most of the people of the society. Because people feel that it is the duty of a Dalit community person to do so. But yes, if the same person talks even a little bit about the other stream, then these people do not waste any time in calling him an enemy and agent of the Dalit society.
The heat of the results of the recently held elections is still not gone from within the society. The political parties claiming to be the party of the Ambedkarite movement may not churn, but the general public is churning a lot. For the first time in Punjab, the Congress party had made the Chief Minister of the Dalit community and also declared him as the candidate for the post of Chief Minister again. Despite this the Congress party could not win in Punjab. The Bahujan Samaj Party had tied up with the Akali Dal and it was believed that it would emerge as a major force, but it too was badly defeated. The resounding victory went to the Aam Aadmi Party, which broke the results of all previous elections and registered a record victory. The Aam Aadmi Party may have done the groundwork, but were the Congress and the BSP-Akali alliance so weak that they could be swept away. Was Charanjit Singh Channi, a grassroots leader and chief minister who won elections several times, so weak that he lost the election to a stranger. Was Akali Dal’s strongman Amarinder Singh such a weak candidate that he could not win his seat even after alliance with BSP?
So what was going on in the minds of the people of Punjab? Why did Punjab with 35 percent population not want a Dalit Chief Minister? Or why did the people lose their fascination with the BSP-Akali alliance, to which the people had once given a lot of support? This is a great research topic for sociology students.
Now coming to the political question. Congress never gave proper respect to Babasaheb Ambedkar during its reign. The Congress kept hesitating even to give him the Bharat Ratna. And finally when the non-Congress government was formed and V.P. When Singh became the Prime Minister, he gave Bharat Ratna to Babasaheb. The BJP has done many big things regarding Babasaheb during its eight years at the Center so far. The land of 15 Janpath which was left by the Congress to become a forest, the BJP built a grand building like Dr. Ambedkar International Center on it. 26 Alipore Road; Where Babasaheb died, the BJP got Dr. Ambedkar National Memorial built there too. Ramnath Kovind, who belongs to the Dalit community, was appointed as the President of the country. Worked on the strategy of symbolically promoting Dalit leaders in all the states. Due to these works, BJP gave the message of Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas even within the Dalits. Seeing all this, the Dalits also became puffed up.
That is, taking advantage of Dalits’ socio-economic backwardness and less awareness, where Congress ignored Babasaheb, did not allow his personality to come to the fore, then after Kanshi Ram’s Bahujan movement, when a large section of Dalits-backward people became aware and after that When the era of BJP came, it first adopted the strategy of accepting Babasaheb who was most important in the life of Dalits or should we say that Dalits and most backward people. BJP built buildings associated with Babasaheb and the underprivileged community became happy. He talked about giving things like houses, grains and toilets which are the rights of every citizen of the country and the deprived society became happy.
But the Ambedkarites did not see that the BJP has also started extracting its price through the back door. Whether it is a matter of changing the constitution or abolishing SC-ST reservation, the BJP is determined to extract the price. He did not fill the backlog of vacant seats, nor did he give jobs. Inflation is skyrocketing, but people don’t care.
So the question is, what do Dalits and OBCs want? What should his well wishers do so that people can understand? I know dozens of such organizations which are doing wonderful work from education to social sector to take the society forward in their respective cities or states. His efforts have changed the lives of hundreds of Bahujan youths. There are many such intellectuals across the country who keep trying to make people aware through their words and their writings. While doing their work, they keep trying to make their society better. They speak on YouTube, write in newspapers and magazines, travel hundreds of kilometers and go among them. He explains to them about Babasaheb’s words, about the Bahujan movement, the value of votes. But when the opportunity comes to show their strength, they forget all that and give more attention to those who work for symbols. Today is the era of social media and it is being said that people have become very aware. But should this awareness be considered that someone can mislead you? Better than this were the earlier less conscious people who were ready to fight for the welfare of their leaders and society. The society raises questions on the leaders that the leader is not right, isn’t there a question on the society as well? Shouldn’t the society look within itself? Doesn’t the society better read the correct text of Ambedkarism once again?
Courtesy : Dalit Dastak
Note: This news piece was originally published in dalitdastak.com and used purely for non-profit/non-commercial purposes exclusively for Human Rights.
