BJP, RSS lay claims to Ambedkar's legacy

BJP President Amit Shah and the RSS leadership addressing public rallies and issuing books and special supplements in honour of Ambedkar

The Sangh Parivar, led by its political arm, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), will on Tuesday make a determined effort to lay claim to Dalit icon Bhimrao Ambedkar’s legacy.

The day will be marked by senior Modi government ministers, BJP President Amit Shah and the top Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) leadership addressing public rallies and issuing books and special supplements in honour of Ambedkar. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will lay the foundation stone for an Ambedkar International Centre in this city on April 20.

Prabhat Prakashan, a leading city-based publisher, is to issue a compilation of Modi’s speeches, titled ‘Social Harmony’, where the PM has lauded Ambedkar’s role in the social transformation of Hindu society. The front cover of the 248-page compilation has a photograph of the PM with Ambedkar’s picture in the background. The book is a translation of a Hindi book, Samajik Samarasta, published in 2012.

Amit Shah and Home Minister Rajnath Singh will address a rally of BJP workers at Patna’s Gandhi Maidan to launch the party's poll campaign for the Bihar assembly elections later this year. The BJP hopes to make inroads into the ruling Janata Dal's substantial ‘mahadalit’ vote bank.

RSS second-in-command Suresh Joshi will unveil the special supplement of its English language mouthpiece, Organiser, and the Hindi Panchjanya dedicated to Ambedkar at Delhi’s Siri Fort Auditorium. The supplement highlights how Ambedkar agreed with the RSS ideology on several counts and that Ambedkar and RSS founder K B Hedgewar complemented each other to strengthen Hindu society, where Ambedkar worked for its social transformation and Hedgewar for the cultural transformation of Hindus.

In this week’s issue of Organiser, editor Praful Ketkar has stated the Sangh Parivar has been subjected to political untouchability by other political parties, just as Dalits have been subjected to social untouchability.

The RSS and its Vishva Hindu Parishad affiliate have started a campaign for ‘inclusive Hinduism’, with an Ek mandir, ek talaab, ek shamshan slogan, to enable Dalit access to temples, village ponds and cremation grounds.

However, there seems some discrepancy in the way the BJP and the Modi government have calculated Ambedkar's date of birth. Ambedkar, according to available records, was born on April 14, 1891. A BJP press statement on Monday said it would commemorate Ambedkar's 125th birth anniversary, while a message from the government's Press Information Bureau said minister of social justice and empowerment Thawarchand Gehlot would pay floral tributes to the statue of Ambedkar at Parliament House on his 124th birth anniversary.