The Daily Fix: Will the BJP’s strong embrace of Ambedkar’s memory help Dalits to make progress?

The Big Story: Caste calculus

During his lifetime, BR Ambedkar was disliked by large sections of the upper-caste men who formed India’s national leadership. His biographer Dhanajay Keer described Ambedkar as “the most hated man in India” for daring to oppose Mohandas Gandhi on the question of a separate Dalit electorate.

That was then. Like the memory of Martin Luther King has become a harmless relic for American politicians, Ambedkar has been appropriated by the same sections he once fought against tooth and nail.

On Ambedkar’s 126th birth anniversary, which falls on Friday, the Bharatiya Janata Party is preparing to pull out all stops to recall his memory. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Nagpur, where Ambedkar was converted to Buddhism, to inaugurate a series of development projects. Modi has announced that he will pray at Deekshabhoomi, the site that marks the conversion.

This is not the first time the BJP is attempting to link itself with the memory of Ambedkar. In 2016, Modi had visited Mhow, the birthplace of Ambedkar. Earlier, he had laid the foundation stone for a memorial of Ambedkar in New Delhi.

This is a remarkable change in the way mainstream Indian politics views Ambedkar. As Dalit thinker Kancha Illaiah said, “Until the 1990, Ambedkar was untouchable to all mainstream political parties.”

What changed was a strong Dalit assertion. Ambedkarite politics meant Dalits now were ready to follow their own parties under Kanshi Ram’s slogan, “Vote hamara, raj tumhara, nahin chaleha, nahin chalega.” We vote but you rule, that simply won’t do.

The Congress, which depended on Dalit votes, never recovered from this blow in North India and is on the verge of being wiped out. The BJP, though, was more nimble. It used Hindutva to undermine Ambedkarite politics, even while paying lip service to Ambedkar himself.

This outreach has paid the BJP rich electoral dividends. In the recently concluded Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, many Dalits voted for the BJP. By contrast, the main vehicle of Ambedkarite politics, the Bahujan Samaj Party stood abandoned by many sections of its Dalit base and managed to win less than 5% of the seats in the Assembly. The BJP won 80% of the seats.

However, what this means for Dalit emancipation remains unclear. The BJP might take the votes of Dalits, but the party remains completely dominated by upper castes and powerful other backward castes.

Take the case of the caste census. It is the most important tool to ensure caste justice. But till today, all caste numbers are based on a census carried out in 1931 – an incredible fact given the preponderance of caste in the government’s welfare programmes. Yet, the BJP has ensured that the caste census data remain under wraps. Conducted in 2011, the data is yet to be released. A report in the Economic Times blames upper caste interests in the bureaucracy and top political leadership for not releasing the data, given the low upper caste numbers the survey has returned.

This is not all. The BJP is keen on pushing the agenda of the cow to keep its upper caste base happy. Yet the impact it will have on the lives of Dalits who are involved in the meat and leather trade has been ignored.

India ranks 131st on the Human Development Index. Its human development indicators compare with ravaged regions such as sub-Saharan Africa. The main victims of this severe poverty are Dalits, whose babies die of malnutrition or, if they survive, are trapped in a life without education or hope of economic advancement. The BJP’s Dalit outreach is welcome. But it has to do a lot more if it really wants Dalits to make progress.

The Big Scroll

1. Why BR Ambedkar’s three warnings in his last speech to the Constituent Assembly resonate even today.
2. Observing Water Day on Ambedkar’s birthday is a hollow exercise if his legacy on water is ignored, writes Mukul Sharma.
3. After decades spent vilifying Ambedkar, why are the BJP and Congress so keen to claim his legacy, asks Shoaib Daniyal.
4. On Ambedkar’s 60th death anniversary, the media proved that he was Untouchable in death as in life, argues S Anand.
5. Despite having 40 Dalit MPs, why has the BJP ignored Dalit complaints? Dr Ambedkar has the answer writes Shoaib Daniyal

Subscribe to “The Daily Fix” by either downloading Scroll’s Android app or opting for it to be delivered to your mailbox.

Political Picks

1. In the recent bypolls, it’s clear Advantage Bharatiya Janata Party – but there’s some comfort for the Congress too.
2. Repolling in the Srinagar Lok Sabha constituency’s 38 booths registered only a 2% voter turnout, Jammu and Kashmir’s lowest ever.
3. New Delhi responds to Jadhav death sentence by ordering a slowdown on visas for Pakistan nationals.
4. Panjab University is now seeing the rise of a left wing student’s body after many decades of vacuum.
5. Justice Karnan has summoned the Chief Justice of India Khehar and six other Supreme Court judges to his residential court in Kolkata. This is part of an ongoing tussle between the Supreme Court and Justice Karnan after the latter alleged widespread corruption in the higher judiciary.
6. The US military claimed it dropped the largest-ever non-nuclear bomb on an ISIS affiliate in Afghanistan. The number of civilian casualties is still indeterminate but is thought to be high.

Punditry

1. By siding with a politics which marginalises minorities and seeks to subjugate them, Hindus are losing the essence of their religion, argues Apoorvanand in the Indian Express.
2. How religious belief disguised as an economic principle changed the original intent of Ambedkar’s Constitution, argues Sanjay Hegde in the Hindu.
3. Kulbhushan Jadhav’s death sentence weakens Pakistan’s civilian government, says Kanwal Sibal in the Hindustan Times.

Giggle

Don’t Miss

Uttar Pradesh meat politics: Why have the ‘sickular parties’ failed to show support for Muslims, asks Ajaz Ashraf.

“’The cadres are being told that Brahmins feel alienated because a Rajput has been made a chief minister,’ the functionary said. ‘Mayawati thinks the Brahmins can still be won over.’ This suggests that Mayawati does not wish to plunge into the politics of meat with a counter-narrative perhaps because she fears it would not be to the liking of Brahmins.”