Several chapters in the edition say Ambedkar's vision of foreign policy countered that of Nehru. "If foreign policy means to ensure protecting national interest while engaging with other nations, then the vision of Dr Ambedkar provides us with alternative ideas which were counter to the idealist premise of Nehru," said Prafulla Ketkar.
Bhimrao Ambedkar was born as a Hindu, but converted to Buddhism. The BJP and the RSS are "revisiting" him to draw parallels with Hindutva leaders while underlining his criticism of Jawaharlal Nehru's foreign policy.
"From the representation of Pope to emissaries of Nizam, everybody approached him. He refused everybody. He was well aware of the fact that embracing Christianity or Islam would put the whole nation in danger. That is why he decided to go with the roots of this nation. Dalai Lama considers Hindus and Buddhists as spiritual brothers. On the same line, Ambedkar adopted the path which was in tune with the cultural, social and philosophical ethos of India," RSS sahasarkaryavah Krishna Gopal wrote in the Organiser's Collector's Edition.
He said Ambedkar was upset about forcible conversion in Pakistan and Hyderabad state and asked the scheduled castes "not to succumb to conversion to Islam an easy way to escape; and to all those who were forcibly converted to Islam he pledged his word that he would see that they were received back into the fold."
However, the RSS leader also pointed out that he was annoyed with "hypocrisy, fraud, access ritualism, inhuman treatment in Hindu society in the name of religion."
Several chapters in the edition say Ambedkar's vision of foreign policy countered that of Nehru. "If foreign policy means to ensure protecting national interest while engaging with other nations, then the vision of Dr Ambedkar provides us with alternative ideas which were counter to the idealist premise of Nehru," said Prafulla Ketkar.
The appropriation of Ambedkar by the Sangh Parivar, while trying to distance him from the Congress, is just the beginning of a campaign as it tries to reach out to the dalits. The BJP, which is setting its eyes on the dalit vote bank, particularly in Bihar and UP, is planning to come out with literature on Congress's approach to Ambedkar.
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Sangh Parivar sources said that this was not the first time they had expressed their admiration for Ambedkar. "Our focus has not changed. We have brought out 26-27 of his dimensions. We want to project him in totality. He had adopted Buddhism but he wanted to remain under the Hindu imbrella," said "Panchajanya" editor Hitesh Shankar.
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