Competitive Adulation of B.R. Ambedkar

Every political party today pays obeisance to Ambedkar. It's debatable whether it's to commandeer his image for votes, or to genuinely engage with his bold ideas

- SHASHI THAROOR

The recent controversy in parliament about a demeaning reference to B.R. Ambedkar by the home minister and the extraordinary spectacle of both Congress and BJP MPs holding duelling protests outside the House—brandishing his posters and screaming "Jai Bhim!"—offer the most recent and most dramatic confirmation yet that Ambedkar is the one Indian political figure who has grown in stature since his death.

He is among the most revered of Indians, his birthday the occasion of a five-night vigil by his devoted followers, his statues across the country second only in number to those of Mahatma Gandhi. Every village and every junction appears to have one, a stocky balding figure in a suit and tie, clutching a book meant to represent the Constitution. When India's highest civilian award, the Bharat Ratna, was conferred upon him posthumously in 1990, the only criticism was of why it had taken so long.

Today, the Left parties, the right-wing BJP, the centrist Congress and the non-ideological Aam Aadmi Party all express their admiration for Ambedkar. The decision of the AAP government in Punjab to display Ambedkar's portraits in government offices was one more example of the iconic status he has now attained. As the social scientist Badri Narayan has observed, "If Babasaheb Ambedkar were alive today, he would probably have been quite amazed to see how political parties with completely different ideologies are vying with each other to associate themselves with his persona."

Indeed, Ambedkar's life and work has been reinvented and reimagined to occupy a larger space in the public imagination than ever before. Narayan attributes this to Dalits becoming more politically aware than in the past and political parties using their proclaimed commitment to Ambedkar's vision as their instrument of outreach to Dalit voters, who account for some 16.6 percent of the electorate.