Will Aiyar and the Congress come clean on Ambedkar?

Mani Shankar Aiyar is suspended from the Congress for his contemptuous remark on Prime Minister Narendra Modi but the reason for his malevolence remained largely undiscussed. Congressmen, from Rahul Gandhi to Randeep Singh Surjewala, share Aiyar’s concern that the RSS-BJP has been appropriating Dr BR Ambedkar who, according to them, was given honour and political opportunities by the Congress. Their frustration over Modi’s observation that the Congress has reduced Ambedkar’s role in Indian politics, was demonstrated through Aiyar’s derogatory remark for him.

Congress’s propaganda of its favour to Ambedkar by giving him a larger role in the Constituent Assembly is in absolute contrast to reality. Congress should accept the fact that patronised historians present dulcet facts and half-truths. But, history cannot remain a prisoner of polemics and political affiliations for long. Congress had fought tooth and nail to prevent Ambedkar from entering into the Constituent Assembly. Being a man of conviction, his social radicalism was an eyesore for Congress. His complaisance was for a greater cause and not just for his career. Thus, Congress conspired to keep him away from the Constituent Assembly and run the show with few friendly Dalit leaders.

It is an undisputed fact that it was JN Mandal who ensured his entry to the Assembly from Bengal by securing votes from Muslim league and Anglo-Indians. Mandal was an arch enemy of the Congress in Bengal. Later Mandal became the first law minister of Pakistan. But anti-Dalit stances of the Pakistani government and the Muslims inflicted him with guilt and his dream of Muslim-Dalit unity shattered. He resigned from the cabinet and came back to India.

Ambedkar failed to secure entry in the Constituent Assembly from the Congress-ruled Bombay. Due to the partition, his constituency became a part of East Bengal so he seeked re-election. It was MR Jaykar, a RSS sympathiser, who vacated the seat in Bombay which was allotted to Ambedkar. The desperate Congress leadership of Nehru, Sardar Patel and Dr Rajendra Prasad, realised Ambedkar’s worth as the chairman of the Drafting Committee.

Of its seven members including its chairman, one had died, another was mostly abroad due to health problems and yet another had thin presence in the draft committee meetings and two were busy in provincial politics. In fact, the entire job of drafting fell on the shoulders of Ambedkar and he quite effectively and intelligently accomplished it. He is, in the true sense, the father of the Indian Constitution. But Congress could not pay him enough gratitude once the job was over.

Another claim of the Congress is that it was Nehru’s greatness that he included Ambedkar in his cabinet and made him the law minister. But Nehru ensured the defeat of the father of the Indian Constitution in the first general elections in 1952. The Constituent Assembly camaraderie ended. Congress fielded Narayan Sadoba Kajrolkar, who was once Ambedkar’s personal assistant. Nehru visited Bombay North-Central Lok Sabha constituency twice and solicited support of the CPI to ensure his defeat. Owing to Nehru’s wholehearted efforts Ambedkar was defeated by 15,000 votes. Three years later Ambedkar was in the fray in a by-election of Bhandara Lok Sabha seat.

Here, too, the Congress left no stone unturned to defeat him which had an adverse impact on his life. Ambedkar’s adversary Kajrolkar was given the Padma Bhushan award in 1970 and Ambedkar got Bharat Ratna posthumously in 1990.

Ambedkar incisively understood RSS work and its battle against conservatism, caste hierarchies and discriminatory treatment against scheduled castes which impressed him a lot. Throughout his life he never uttered or wrote a word against RSS. He found a contrast between other organisations working for social egalitarianism and RSS which never publicised its egalitarian efforts and remained uncompromised on the question of establishing Dalit dignity. His visit to the RSS camp in Pune in 1938 perturbed many socialists and Dalits who blindly opposed the Sangh. Later, the RSS included his name in pratah smarana (morning hymns). When Arun Shourie wrote Worshipping False Gods, RSS stalwart Dattopant Thengadi was quick to retort it and wrote a book Ambedkar Aur Samajik Kranti Ki Yatra.” Thengadi contemptuously made a passing remark on Shourie’s work stating that his work did not even deserve a serious attention.

Another historical fact which exposes Congress love for Dalits is that its Dalit affinity is confined to using it as a vote bank. It unfailingly appropriated Dalit leaders and patronised only those who submitted to its elitist and feudal perspective. Bihar Congress, during the colonial era, tried to suppress Jagjivan Ram and pushed Jaglal Chaudhary, another Dalit leader who was close to Dr Rajendra Prasad despite the fact that Ram enjoyed overwhelming support among elected Dalit representatives in 1937.

Mani Shankar Aiyar and the Congress leadership need to check facts before claiming Ambedkar. Will Left liberals and Nehruvians realise where they stand in comparison with the RSS?

The author is founding Honorary Director of India Policy Foundation, a Delhi-based think tank. Views expressed are personal.