Political Diary
New
Delhi, 17 April 2018
My Ambedkar Vs Yours
A PERFECT
RIP OFF
By Poonam I Kaushish
It is a perfect con
job. On the latest catch word: Ambedkar. So last week India stood testimony to
a lot of noises being made over the father of the Constitution. Asserted Prime Minister Modi, “Everyone rushes to do
politics in Ambedkar’s name but it is my Government which has honoured, given
respect to him.” Retorted Dalit messiah BSP’s Mayawati, “The BJP is anti-Ambedkar and anti-Constitution.” Alongside
her foe-turned-friend’ SP’s Akhilesh they grandiosely celebrated Babasaheb’s
127th birth anniversary. All staking claim to his legacy.
Reducing it to a game of one-upmanship of ‘my Ambedkar vs yours!”
Basically this
bloated rhetoric about Ambedkar bandied by all Parties is essentially an
intra-Party affair, all wanting to cement a winning bond with the Dalit icon
and capitalize on it. Understandable, as the community accounts for 20% of the
vote bank and its votes would tilt the balance on who sits on India’s Raj gaddi.
Towards that end, the
BJP-led Government is constructing two memorials in Delhi and the BSP-SP
combine are commemorating him in 90 UP districts and BUILDING statues. Clearly, none wants to jeopordise castevote
banks which has become the most luscious mistress to be measured through the
prism of power glass politics. Wherein, the fight over Ambedkar has been
reduced to politics of optics and perception.
Consequently, the
more India changes, it remains the same whereby caste has cast a long shadow
over Indian politics. The scepter that haunts the nation is not of class
struggle but caste struggle. “Backwards” and “Forwards” are more meaningful
than the Left and the Right in politics. Thereby, giving further impetus and
widens the caste divide. But who cares?
Raising a moot point: Does our polity divided
by caste, splintered by religion, riven by political and ideological
differences and bereft of statesmen with vision and concern for tomorrow,
really genuinely believe in Ambedkar’s ideology? “I feel the caste system must
be abolished if the Hindu society is to be reconstructed on the basis of
equality, goes without saying. Untouchability has its roots in the caste
system,” said he.
Alas, the caste genie
unleashed three decades ago, which Ambedkar was against, is now devouring the
country. Whereby this issue erupted into a conflagration last week when Dalit
groups across the country took to the streets in a “Bharat Bandh” in response
to the alleged “dilution” of the Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes
(ST) (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989. Leaving over 10 dead and many injured
in Rajasthan, MP, Punjab and Delhi.
Recall, the Supreme
Court banned automatic arrests and registration of criminal cases under the
legislation which seeks to protect members of scheduled castes and tribes
against discrimination and abuse last month.
Notably, given that
the Dalits form a crucial vote bank in UP and Punjab, constituting more than 20
per cent and 32 per cent respectively of the population, as also having a large populous in the Hindu
heartland including Bihar, MP and Rajasthan any wonder our Parties are
desperate. All are falling over each other in positioning Ambedkarism as the
ideological alternative to Gandhism as vote-banks on caste lines are easier to
build.
From Kashmir to
Kanyakumari, Maharashtra to Manipur communal and caste explosions and
exploitations rule the roost. With parties defining it according to its own
warped and selfish needs.
Not just that. With
everyone propounding their own recipes of communal and caste harmony, the
nation is getting sucked into the vortex of centrifugal bickering. So caught up
are our leaders in their frenzied pursuit of political nirvana through
separatism that they confuse themselves.
Touch any sphere of
national life --- political, social, economic, administrative, educational and
judicial. The cancerous C2 has already spread into its vitals. Tragically,
bringing things to such a pass whereby everything today has degenerated into
the caste paradigm.
Mandalistation of
politics and the emergence of the Dalit-OBC-Muslim combine in electoral
politics brought about a sea change in our polity. Wherein it is now polarised
on a caste basis with elections being fought on caste considerations.
In fact, voters are
regressively but decisively voting along caste lines. This social engineering
via the ballot has become its mainstay. After all, why should the Brahmins and
Thakurs, a mere 15 per cent of the vote bank, rule the roost? In other words,
political consciousness today terminates at the caste and community level.
Hence, this social
chasm has widened with the emergence of the “Made in India” leaders like Lalu,
Mulayam and Mayawati. If Lalu kid gloved the forwards with his massive backward
following, Mulayam played his Yadav and Muslim card to the hilt in Government
and judicial appointments. Mayawati revealed in “transfer Raj”, replacing many
upper caste officers by Dalit officials.
Thereby, giving the
rootless down-trodden a new identity and attitudinal changes. Think. Today,
Bihar resembles a battle ground of caste senas.
If yesterday it was a tussle between the Ranveer Sena, private Army of Upper
caste landlords vs the Left, Marxist
Communist Centre today it is the Jai Shri Ram Sena, which has just been floated
to defend farmers, against the two. All merrily turning Bihar into the killing
fields.
Clearly, our leaders
are either unable or unwilling to break out of the caste mould. In the long
run, this is bound to increase dissatisfaction all around. By making noises and
finding a scapegoat, our polity runs the risk of changing major political
alignments on caste lines.
Forgetting that it is
equally dangerous to indulge in the ongoing political power games passed on
caste rivalries. By that token, the whole social reform movement will become
meaningless. It is clear that if political consciousness terminates at the
caste level, divisive caste combinations will continue to dominate Indian
politics. Granted it will be suicidal not to take cognizance of the new found
political aspirations of the backward castes. At the same time, it is equally
dangerous to indulge in the ongoing political power games based on caste and
communal considerations.
Alas, with all
merrily playing the caste zerosum game it is now difficult to recognize India
as the same country which Emerson described as the “summit of human
thought.” The time has come to undergo
catharsis --- a course in emptive cleansing and in cementing a cohesive
society. The moment for soul searching, not soul searing. Away from the
electioneering fields.
Where do we go from
here? It all depends on whether the Government is willing to get rid of its
excess baggage of casteisms which is caught in the vortex of vote bankism. It
remains to be seen who will come up trumps in this “battle of ideologies for a
new India”
Undoubtedly, India
stands testimony to the fact that power in privilege stands further transformed
through electoral competition into power in numbers. Time now for our petty
power-at-all cost polity to think beyond vote-bank politics and look at the
long-term implications. Which, if not arrested, could well boomerang on them
and spell danger to our democracy.
Our leaders need to ponder
over Ambedkar’s wise assertion, “An idea needs propagation as much as a plant
needs watering. Otherwise both will wither and die”. So instead of going
through the circus of hypocritical drivel of crooning his legacy we need to see
actions rather than words. India and its citizens deserve a lot better. What
gives? ----- INFA
(Copyright, India
News & Feature Alliance)
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