Beware BJP’s love for Ambedkar

The Bharatiya Janata Party is suddenly in love with B.R. Ambedkar. It already loved the Hindu religion; swadeshi has been its main plank. No...

The Bharatiya Janata Party is suddenly in love with B.R. Ambedkar. It already loved the Hindu religion; swadeshi has been its main plank. Now Vinay Katiyar has launched a campaign for cultural nationalism in Uttar Pradesh and the main agenda is to highlight Ambedkar’s ideas on Muslims. He insists that Ambedkar is not the monopoly of anyone. According to him, Ambedkar was for the Hindu religion and wanted to throw out the Muslims. How does the BJP believe it can get away with saying this? It is because propaganda has paid rich dividends to the party. Hitler said that a lie repeated a hundred times, will become the truth. The BJP has succeeded in this, most recently in Gujarat. Of course, a weak opposition also contributed.

How shameless they are when they claim that Ambedkar was for Hinduism. Who does not know that he rejected Hinduism on October 14, 1956, at Nagpur along with lakhs of supporters and vowed to eliminate the caste system? He said that Hinduism was not a religion but a plan to enslave the majority of people — especially Dalits and women. At one time, he wanted to embrace Islam but did not do so because the caste system had settled into Islam as well.

How can Ambedkar be called anti-Muslim? He was the one who expressed his apprehension that if, after Independence, Muslims remained with Manuwadi forces like the sangh parivar, they would become slaves and that is precisely what is happening in Gujarat. Ambedkar strongly opposed the Hindu Raj and said that if it was not stopped, it would be most unfortunate for the country. In fact, Ambedkar’s lifelong struggle was against the ideology of the BJP. It is impossible to imagine that Ambedkar could be in favour of the construction of the temple at Ayodhya, as the BJP now claims. The BJP is quoting him wrongly and out of context.

The BSP must choose between the BJP and Ambedkar. The reason why the BJP has dared to mount such a campaign now and not earlier proves beyond any doubt that its alliance with the BSP has encouraged it to do so. Mayawati campaigned for the victory of Manuvad and Moditva and it is this that has helped the BJP to degrade Ambedkar.

Vinay Katiyar has also proclaimed that Dalits and Muslims can never be united. Why does this worry the BJP? It is precisely because they are, in fact, coming together. When Ambedkar was defeated in elections in Maharashtra, Muslims helped him to win the election from Bengal. Muslims have helped in building the movement of the RPI and BSP. Dalits are often used against the Muslims, but if they come together then it will not be possible for the BJP to use one against the other. Moreover, surely it is the Muslims and Dalits, themselves, who must decide whether their coming together will work or not. The sangh parivar has no business to interfere in this matter.

People are misguided and confused into believing that the sangh parivar is serious about Hinduism. When the implementation of the Mandal Commission was announced in 1990, the BJP diverted the entire anger against Mandal and encashed it while telling the people that the Ram temple must be built at Ayodhya. In fact, they were using religion to serve their political motives.

The BJP promised its followers that, while in power, the temple would be constructed. After that they came to power more than once, but did they do so? They were also loud in their opposition to westernisation and dependence on foreign investment. Now their government runs like an extension of the US administration. Where has swadeshi gone? They also made tall claims that they would serve the nation and teach Pakistan a lesson. But workers and leaders of the sangh parivar gather only around Ayodhya and Gujarat.

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In fact, the outfits of the sangh parivar have no love for the agenda which they claim as their own. They’re only interested in power. From their rhetoric, it would appear that the nation has already solved all its basic problems, like power, water, housing, health, employment, and that the only thing that matters is the fact that Hinduism is supposedly under threat. To understand the BJP is to know that they speak in many voices. The party’s sudden love for Ambedkar must be perceived in this context. Ambedkarites must be careful of the BJP’s designs.

(The writer is chairman, All India Confederation of SC/ST Organisations)