THE RISE & RISE OF AMBEDKAR AS AN ICON

THE fracas over an insult to Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar leading to fisticuffs between the members of the ruling coalition and the opposition within the parliament complex underlined two distinctive trends.

- BALBIR PUNJ

First, the level of discourse between the mainline Indian political parties has touched an unprecedented low even within parliament. Second, over the last few decades, Ambedkar has emerged as the only leader whom all political outfits—regional and national, cutting across ideological barriers—are competing to appropriate in contemporary India.

It's undoubtedly a fascinating journey for someone born a Dalit in a caste-ridden society during colonial rule, who suffered terrible abuse and discrimination as a child and was forced to the margins of the Indian political scene by the contemporary establishment before his demise in 1956.

Today, Ambedkar almost looms larger than anyone else in the political lexicon of India. While the BJP and the Congress—the two old political formulations with pan-India footprints today—are vying with each other to claim his legacy, Ambedkar's photographs invariably form the backdrop in the newer outfit Aam Aadmi Party's offices, along with that of Bhagat Singh.

Shunning their earlier antipathy, communists of various hues have emerged as his supporters, too. In the highly fractured Indian socio-political spectrum, no organisation of consequence is critical of Ambedkar. From being a sectional leader of depressed classes, Ambedkar has emerged as a national icon—a status only Mahatma Gandhi has had in the recent Indian narrative.

Gandhi and Ambedkar enjoyed a unique relationship. They clashed and collaborated as well. Each one was true to his wont. While Gandhi was fighting for India's freedom, Ambedkar's prime concern was to save his people, the Dalits, from oppression—an ignoble part of the centuries-old, corrosive caste system.