Desecration of Ambedkar Statues – Civil Response

 

Desecration of Ambedkar Statues – Civil Response

Babasaheb Ambedkar is a phenomenon which is both easy and hard to understand with the changing political and socio-cultural landscape of the country. On one hand more and more statues/busts/memorials of Dr. B. R. Ambedkar are coming up not only in India but also abroad. It is gratifying to know that many cities and provinces in the UK, the USA and Canada among others have proclaimed April 14, birthday of Babasaheb Ambedkar, as Dr.
B.R. Ambedkar Day of Equality. During the life time of Babasaheb Ambedkar neither the governments of the day and nor the socio-cultural outfits and their leaderships accepted and accommodated Babasaheb, one of the greatest sons of contemporary India. With the pleasant political fallout of the Constitution of India, thoughtfully made and adopted by our forefathers led by Babasaheb Ambedkar himself, the political leadership started to understand the importance of the icon in 1970s onwards. Babu Kanshi Ram dragged Babasaheb Ambedkar from the academic and intellectual realm to the social grassroots of the country. By now Ambedkar has become a much sought after entity not only in the corridors of power but also a ‘not to be ignored’ personality in the socio-political circles of the country. The paradox of the emerging situation is that the upper crust of the caste-ridden society and their political outfits still, it seems, have their reservations in accepting Babasaheb Ambedkar and giving him the space he deserved. That is why I said that it is both easy and difficult to understand the iconic figure, Babasaheb Ambedkar.

My immediate provocation to write emanated from the current news about desecration of the statues of Ambedkar in Punjab. Though this kind of anti-social activities had been taking place in other parts of the country as the
empowerment of dalits, brought out by Babasaheb and the Constitution of India,  is not digestible easily by the Thekedars of the society suffering from Manuwadi thinking yet it is time to study and understand the reasons and motivations of vested interests like Pannus and others to execute their nefarious agenda against India that is Bharat under the guise and pretext of Ambedkar’ Constitution and shatter the social fabric of not only Punjab but beyond.

The recent events of desecration of statues of Ambedkar at various sites in both urban and rural areas of Punjab publically owned by the likes of Pannus and some extremists and separatists belonging to the Sikh community is increasingly becoming worrisome and matter of concern. It must be stopped and checked immediately both by the authorities and also by the socio-cultural outfits like SGPC, RSS, Dera Beas, Dera Ram Rahim Singh, Dera
Nirankar, inter alia and also the civil society at large. Unfortunately, what has been noticed so far is that only dalits and their socio-cultural outfits have been criticizing and challenging the anti-social and anti-national activities and agenda of the vested interests as if Babasaheb belonged to them alone and not to ‘We the people of India’. According to the media reports some dalit activists belonging to SAD (A) and Congress Party and also of BJP have joined the protests with regard to Nangal-Phillour desecration a few days ago.

The political parties who fall on each other to own Ambedkar and his legacy to attract vote banks and the civil society belonging to the so called Swarans (upper castes) should come out and challenge the anti-social and anti-national elements. It is needed not only to maintain the law and order at the affected areas but also to save the socio-political edifice of Bharat. Sitting on the fence and claim Babasaheb for selfish ends is not the answer. As regards the law abiding followers of Babasaheb they have made their resolve public and rightly so in the Punjabi folk lore which is getting viral – Jo Butt Babasaheb Da Todu; ohdian Lattan Todage; Jo Butt Ambedkar Da Todu Ohdian Bahvan Todange – Jo Butt Bhim Rao Da Todu Ohdi Dhaoun Marodange.

I conclude this off the cuff piece with a poetic assertion of Allama Iqbal for the benefit of the Thekedars of the society –

 मस्जिद तो बना दी शब भर में ईमान की हरकत वालों ने
मन अपना पुराना पापी है, बरसों में नमाजी बन ना सका

इकबाल बड़ा उपदेशक है, मन बातों में मोह लेता है
गुफ्तार का ये गाजी तो बना, किरदार का गाजी बन ना सका