BJP turns to Ambedkar for Dalit vote

In an attempt to distance itself from the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and signal that it too had a Dalit constituency, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) announced that the Delhi home of Babasaheb Ambedkar would be turned into a national memorial of the "great leader".

BJP leader Prakash Javade-kar said during his tenure as chairman of the Constituent Assembly, Ambedkar lived at Delhi's Alipur Road.

This is building will be refurbished and dedicated as a symbol of honour for a man who did much for the uplift of the Dalits.

Although the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) recognised Ambedkar's contribution to the Hindu society as far back as 1938 when, RSS leaders claim with pride, Ambedkar visited a shakha of the Sangh, the BJP has not been able to develop its Dalit leadership.

The brief tenure of the BJP's only Dalit president Bangaru Laxman, and the treatment meted out to him after the Tehelka episode is indicative of the BJP's dilemma.

The RSS includes Ambedkar's name in its morning prayers along with leaders like Sardar Ballavbhai Patel and believes that though Ambedkar was instrumental in conversion, he should not be counted in the ranks of Christians or Muslims because he converted Hindus to a variant of Hinduism, Buddhism.

Veteran RSS leader Dattopant Thengadi has referred to Ambedkar in his speeches as a "social revolutionary".

Although BJP sources say the announcement of a memorial to Ambedkar is only a symbolic sop for the Dalits, in the wake of the demand for reservations for the poor among the upper castes emanating from Rajasthan, this is an effort to cling to the small following the BJP has among the lower castes.

An aggressive Dalit campaign by the BJP, however, runs the danger of alienating the OBCs in states like UP.

In the 1996 general elections, the BJP allotted a disproportionately high number of nominations to OBCs in UP in a tacit recognition of the mandalisation of politics.

In UP, the worst clashes are between the OBCs and the Dalits. How the BJP will reconcile this political reality remains to be seen.