 "Battle for UP: Sangh ideologue embarrasses BJP, says Ambedkar's role in drafting the Constitution a myth")
Sangh ideologue and Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts (IGNCA) chief Ram Bahadur Rai has questioned the role of BR Ambedkar in drafting of the Constitution, terming it a myth constructed to help identity based politics. Rai’s comments come at a worse possible time for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as it prepares for the elections to the Uttar Pradesh assembly in early 2017 and is making concerted efforts to reach out to the state’s significant Dalit population.
Ambedkar is a Dalit icon. There are fears, with elections to UP assembly less than a year away, that Rai’s comments would give Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati ammunition to paint BJP-Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) as anti-Dalit. The controversy is somewhat similar to when RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, in the run up to Bihar assembly polls in November 2015, repeatedly issued statements demanding a review of quota based reservation policy. After the elections, several Bihar BJP leaders had slammed Bhagwat for having dented the party’s electoral prospects. There are already demands from within the BJP to sack Rai.
Rai was appointed the head of the IGNCA, a government funded autonomous institute under the Ministry of Culture, in April. Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma is yet to comment on the issue but BJP’s Dalit Morcha chief Dushyant Gautam told this website that Rai suffers from a “sick mindset” towards lower castes. “Such people are undoing the hard work put in by Narendra Modi ji and Amit Shah ji to reach out to the Dalits,” a livid Gautam told this website.
Recently, Rai called for redrafting of the constitution at an event organized by Sangh Parivar ideologue KN Govindacharya. He also repeated this in an interview to the Outlook magazine. He said the current Parliament should be converted into the constituent assembly to draft a new constitution for India. Rai said the current Constitution does not encourage federalism and has also already undergone over a 100 amendments. His demand has a precedent in the Vajpayee government having instituted the Justice MN Venkatachaliah Commission in February 2000 to review the working of the Constitution and suggest amendments. The report is yet to be accepted.
But more controversially, Rai also said the deification of Ambedkar as the architect of the Constitution was a myth, and that the constitution was framed by BN Rau. In 1997, Arun Shourie, who was later a minister in the Atal Behari Vajpayee-led government, had penned a book on Ambedkar, ‘Worshipping False Gods’, that questioned Ambedkar’s role in the Indian independence movement. Many Dalit organisations had then wanted the book to be banned.
In this instance, however, the demands for Rai’s removal and BJP officially distancing itself from his views is likely to come from the party itself. Gautam said Ambedkar was the foremost nationalist as he stopped Dalits from converting to Christianity or Islam. He said he will speak with the Culture Minister on how somebody with such a mindset as Rai could continue as the chief of a government funded outfit.
BJP national vice president Vinay Sahasrabuddhe said Ambedkar remains in an icon of the emancipation of the downtrodden section of our society in Indian social and national ethos. “He is our national hero,” Sahasrabuddhe said. He said third RSS chief Balasaheb Deoras had called Ambedkar a visionary.
The controversy is unlikely to die down soon with the battle for UP heating up and BJP trying woo Dalits away from Mayawati.