As we commemorate yet another birth anniversary of Babasaheb Ambedkar on April 14, the dark reality is that his universal vision centred on the idea of justice is under attack from the present government. A cursory scan of the public sphere reveals how the promise of equal citizenship embodied in the Constitution is diluted or denied by the state apparatus every day.
Ambedkar once proclaimed in the Constituent Assembly that Parliament belongs to the Opposition. During the just concluded Budget session, the BJP MPs disrupted proceedings in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha in a planned manner. This was done with the singular aim of denying opposition parties the democratic space to raise the alleged nexus of the Adani group of companies with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The washout of the Budget session is an episode unheard of in the history of our Parliament.
In a 1992 lecture — “Discipline and Decorum in Our Legislatures” — the then chairperson of the Rajya Sabha, K R Narayanan described the disruption of parliamentary proceedings as “measles of the middle ages”. He fervently hoped that with the passage of time and the deepening of democracy in India, this malady would be cured. The BJP MPs have unleashed the disease that is plaguing the very foundations of our democratic structures.
Narendra Modi, on assuming office as Prime Minister in 2014, used to say there would be “minimum government and maximum governance” under his leadership. Unfortunately, the country is witnessing the sad spectacle of Parliament’s functioning being reduced to a bare minimum. The cardinal principle of parliamentary democracy is that the executive is accountable to the legislature. It is violated when government business is approved without debate or discussion. This farce threatens to make Parliament redundant. The late BJP leader Arun Jaitley, while in Opposition, used to justify disturbing parliamentary proceedings as a legitimate parliamentary tactic. When the ruling party MPs adopt this tactic, it becomes a subversion of democracy. Add to this the violence unleashed by pro-government forces in the social and economic spheres. Clearly, India is moving through dark times.
The Sangh Parivar has been relentless in its attempts to polarise society and polity along religious lines. The encouragement and rewarding of BJP MPs and Hindutva leaders who engage in hate speeches targeting Muslims and calling for their social and economic boycott is evidence of the government’s complicity in furthering a polarising agenda. Ambedkar’s anguished articulation in 1928 that “politics in India is nothing but theology in action” has become a reality in Prime Minister Modi’s New India.
Babasaheb’s remedy to this kind of politics is embodied in his advocacy of progressive secularisation of the polity and society. It is a pity that secularism, enshrined in the preamble of the Constitution and held by the Supreme Court as constituting its basic structure, is now being mocked and even attacked by BJP’s top leadership who occupy high constitutional posts. Leaders controlling the state apparatus are constantly invoking the idea of Hindu Rashtra and promoting divisive and fanatical narratives around love jihad, land jihad, cow vigilantism etc. A sustained campaign rooted in Islamophobia is deepening the process of polarisation. The BJP, which is trying hard to appropriate Ambedkar, should know that he had rejected the concept of Hindu Rashtra and had urged Indians to resist it with all their might.
The recent observation of the Supreme Court that the state is incapable of dealing with hate speeches and its sharp observation that the remedy to such speeches is nothing but the separation of politics from religion, vindicate Ambedkar. Hate speeches by BJP and Hindutva leaders remind us of Ambedkar’s warning in the Constituent Assembly in 1946 that leaders giving alarming statements against minorities must be kept in check. The insecurities of minorities have multiplied and the bizarre statement of the RSS chief that Hindus are at war for a thousand years and so it is natural for people to be aggressive has further compounded the danger to the safety and security of citizens. Dalits and women face violence and exclusion in a vitiated atmosphere where only the writ of communal and sectarian forces runs. These communal forces are trying to impose an illiberal monolithic socio-political order on the people of this country. They want to replace the Constitution with the Manusmriti that perpetuates inequality, caste hierarchy, and the degradation of women.
These polarised times cry for Ambedkar’s inclusive vision as enshrined in our Constitution.
The writer is General Secretary, CPI
