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Ambedkar & the BJP | Frontline

POLITICS

Published: February 5, 2014 12:30 IST | Updated: February 19, 2014 17:23 IST
POLITICS

Ambedkar & the BJP

THE HINDU ARCHIVES The BJP has set its sights on the Dalit vote. Here, "Ram and Bhim", a BJP campaign poster in Mhow near
Indore in Madhya Pradesh, which is Bhimrao Ambedkar's birthplace.

The BJP has begun extolling the virtues of Dr B.R. Ambedkar. But one can tell from both what he said
and wrote that he was viscerally opposed to the Hindu Mahasabha and the RSS. By A.G. NOORANI
THE first thing a nouveau riche does, as he takes to social climbing, is to drop names and pretend to a respectable ancestry. Very late
in the day, as its strength began to increase, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) suddenly discovered virtues in Gandhi, whom its idol
V.D. Savarkar conspired to murder, as the Kapur Commission found. The BJP has since set its sights on the Dalit vote and has begun
extolling the virtues of Dr B.R. Ambedkar. In this, it has the strong backing of its mentor, the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS).
Organiser tribute
Its organ Organiser carried, in the issue of December 8, 2013, a tribute to Ambedkar by a RSS Sahsarkaryavah, Krishna Gopal, who
put his own gloss on Ambedkars views. Sample this: One remarkable thing that is visible in Dr Ambedkars life is that he was not in
favour of total annihilation of all old ideals, systems and customs neither he had enmity towards any caste or varna. He believed in
preserving that [which] was good and removing that which has lost its propriety. From this point of view he can be described as an
agitationist.
Dr Ambedkar taught his followers to take all along with them. His fight was not with those castes but with those mentalities that
considered others as fallen or downgrades or even untouchables. He never allowed hatred, enmity and caste conflict to dominate in his
movement and mission. Like Buddha he too believed that even the greatest of enemies can be won by selfless and pure love. This was
the reason that we find people from all castes working hand in hand with Dr Ambedkar. His acceptance of Buddhism and initiation
in that faith saved the Hindu society from further division and this is the greatest gift he had given to the Hindu society (emphasis
added throughout).As it happened, the Mainstream of November 22, 2013, published an article by A.K. Biswas, former ViceChancellor, B.R. Ambedkar University, Muzaffarpur, Bihar. It was entitled The Uncle Judge Syndrome Shadow over Laxmanpur
Bathe. It was concerned with the acquittal by the High Court of Patna of 26 persons who had been convicted by the trial court of the
murder of 58 Dalits by the Ranvir Sena at the village Laxmanpur Bathe in Bihar.
What he wrote deserves to be quoted in extenso: Dr B.R. Ambedkar drove the point most tellingly: From the capital of India to the
village the whole administration is rigged by the Hindus. The Hindus are the life of the omnipotent almighty pervading all over the
administration in all its branches having its authority in all its nooks and corners. There is no loophole for anyone opposed to the old
order to escape. If the old order has continued to exist, it is because of the unfailing support it received from the Hindu officials of the
state. The Hindu officials are not merely administrators, administering the affairs on the merit, they are administrators with an eye to
their parties. Their principle is not equal justice to all. Their motto is justice consistent with established order. This is inevitable. For
they carry over into administration, the attitude towards different classes in the society under the established order.
The untouchable will never be able to get Hindus as witness because of the conspiracy of the villagers not to support the case of the
untouchables however just it may be. If he brings witness from the untouchables, the magistrate will not accept their testimony
because he can easily say that they are interested and not independent witness, or, if they are independent witness, the magistrate has
an easy way of acquitting the accused by simply saying that the untouchables complaint did not strike him as a truthful witness. He
can do this fearlessly knowing fully well that the higher tribunal will not reverse his finding because of the well-established rule which
says that an appellate court should not disturb the findings of the trial magistrate based on the testimony of the witness whose
demeanour he has no opportunity to observe.
This certainly does not justify the gloss which Krishna Gopal put on Ambedkars thoughts and feelings. Do you remember how the
Sangh Parivars goons agitated against the publication of Ambedkars book Riddles in Hinduism? (Dr Balasaheb Ambedkar: Writings
and Speeches, Volume 4). Gopal Gurus well-documented article in the Economic & Political Weekly of February 16, 1991, exposes the
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Ambedkar & the BJP | Frontline

feverish attempts by such elements to co-opt Ambedkar. It is entitled Hinduisation of Ambedkar in Maharashtra.
In November 1951, on the eve of Indias first general election (in 1952) based on adult suffrage, Ambedkars Scheduled Castes
Federation (SCF) forged an electoral alliance with the Praja Socialist Party led by Jayaprakash Narayan. The SCFs election manifesto
ruled out alliance with any reactionary party such as Hindu Mahasabha and Jan Sangh as communal parties (ibid. page 78, citing
Ambedkar, Letters to Gaekward, pages 280-296). A word of caution. Ambedkars biographer Dhananjay Keer was an ardent admirer
of Savarkar, whose biography he also wrote. He is unhappy that Ambedkars tour de force Thoughts on Pakistan did not receive a
rebuttal from the Hindu Mahasabha (page 335)! The Mahasabha was all for the enforcement of the federal part of the Government of
India, 1935. Ambedkar opposed it tooth and nail (page 317). He advocated partition of Kashmir, to the horror of the Jan Sangh.
Embittered indictment
Ambedkar published in 1945 his book What Congress and Gandhi have done to the Untouchables. It was an embittered indictment.
Invective flowed in plenty.
If I refer to the statement of Rai Bahadur Meherchand Khanna, it is not because he is worth taking notice of. For, there cannot be
anyone guilty of bigger blackguardism in Indian politics than this man. In the course of one yearnot in very remote time but in 1944
he successfully played three different roles. He started as secretary of the Hindu Mahasabha, turned agent of British Imperialism,
went abroad to explain Indias war effort to the British and American people and is now agent of the Congress in NWF [North-West
Frontier] Province. The opinion of a man like Rai Bahadur Khanna, who, to use Drydens language, is so various as to be everything by
starts, and nothing long, and who in the course of one revolving moon, can be chemist, fiddler, statesman and buffoon, must be beneath
contempt.
Khanna joined the Jawaharlal Nehru Cabinet. This book of 399 pages reflects Ambedkars basic outlook. If he could be so scathing
about Gandhi and the Congress, would he have thought kindly of the Sangh Parivar of today? Fundamentally, he was against orthodox
Hinduism and caste. He wrote: To the Untouchable, Hinduism is a veritable chamber of horrors and proceeded to adumbrate his
objections. In speech and in writing, Ambedkar was prone to excess. But we know enough from both that he was viscerally opposed to
the Hindu Mahasabha and the RSS.

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