Will Ambedkar’s real legatee stand up?

There can be no doubt about how farsighted Dr Babsaheb Ambedkar’s immense contribution to the polity was when he asked Dalits to shika, sanghatit vha ani sangharsh kara (educate, organise and agitate). Wonder what he would make of the competitive clamour by various political parties, groups and factions in trying to prove how they are more Ambedkarite than the others around December 6 every year.

It began with the Republican Party of India (RPI-A) chief Ramdas Athawale’s warning of an agitation if the Indu Mills land in central Mumbai was not allotted for the construction of an Ambedkar memorial.

“If the land is not allotted by December 6, the death anniversary of Dr Ambedkar, the RPI will launch a protest against the state government from December 13,” he said.

Not wanting to let Athawale hog all the credit, activists of Ambedkar’s grandson Anand Raj’s Republican Sena and his elder brother, Prakash’s Bharipa Bahujan Mahasangh, made efforts to break police barricades at the mill compound last Tuesday.

The 12 other factions of the RPI have also made such demands at various points. In fact the intense rivalry among the many ‘leaders’ to project themselves as ‘the’ community leader has led to some rather disturbing shows of strength.

On July, 11, 1997, when police fired on Dalits protesting the desecration of an Ambedkar statue at Ramabai Nagar, Ghatkopar, 10 people died. Many may remember visuals and photographs of how Athawale was set upon, attacked and stripped, leading him to flee, horror writ large on his face.

What has led to many smirks among political observers is the way the Shiv Sena too has been making supportive noises on the memorial. While its new-found love can perhaps be explained by  the saffron party’s tie-up with Athawale in the run-up to the Mumbai civic polls, surely sainiks haven’t forgotten their party’s stand on renaming Dadar.

At the height of the Sena’s campaign to rename the Victoria Terminus as Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, then railway minister Ram Vilas Paswan had set the proverbial cat among the pigeons. He suggested that Dadar be renamed Chaityabhoomi. While this found favour with Dalits, the Sena newspaper Saamna went hammer and tongs at the suggestion.

I don’t know whether Athawale’s aggressive posturing against the UPA will cut ice with anyone, considering how thick he was with them till recently. Known to be very close to Sharad Pawar till he lost the 2009 election, he broke the alliance with the NCP-Congress in 2011 only after realising that political rehab through the Rajya Sabha route wasn’t happening.

Yet when it comes to hypocrisy, the country’s oldest party takes the cake, dough and the bakery.

The Congress actively worked to ensure Ambedkar’s defeat from Byculla to ensure its own candidate VB Gandhi won. How can one expect them to do anything to preserve the memory of Dr Babasaheb, who stood his own even against the Mahatma?