Mayawati punches holes in BJP-RSS and Congress' claims to Ambedkar's legacy

BSP chief talks of separate electorates for Dalits, says Ambedkar didn't believe in Hindutva

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)–Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress were vying with each other to mark the 124th birth anniversary of Dalit icon B R Ambedkar. However, Mayawati, the feisty Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief, punctured their claims to Ambedkar’s legacy by opening some old wounds.

The former UP chief minister marked the event, along with party workers from each of the state’s 403 Assembly constituencies, at the Ambedkar memorial in Lucknow. Mayawati said Congress and BJP-RSS were celebrating Ambedkar’s birth anniversary to “hoodwink” the Dalits, and to capture their votes in the upcoming Assembly elections to UP and Bihar.

She said Ambedkar gave India a “secular” constitution, but the BJP does not subscribe to its secular nature. She said BJP-RSS propaganda that Ambedkar believed in Hindutva was a “falsehood”, otherwise Ambedkar, along with thousands of his followers, wouldn’t have converted to Buddhism, a religion that truly practices equality. “The BJP-RSS have been twisting statements made by Ambedkar,” Mayawati said.

She said the BJP-RSS used to “chant Hindu-Hindu” and talk of inclusive Hindu religion to the Dalits and backward castes before elections, but discriminate against deprived castes and support their own castes after attaining power.

Mayawati said it will not surprise her if the Narendra Modi government, to mislead Dalits into voting for the BJP in 2017 UP assembly elections, were to posthumously confer upon BSP founder Kanshi Ram a Bharat Ratna and declare the house in Delhi’s Alipur Road where Ambedkar breathed his last a national monument.

Mayawati was unsparing on the Congress and Samajwadi Party as well. She said the BJP and SP were likely to engineer communal riots in UP before the Assembly elections. The BSP chief, currently a Rajya Sabha MP, said Ambedkar was forced into signing the ‘Poona Pact’ that could have given Dalits separate electorates. Mayawati said separate electorates would have ensured only Dalits vote to elect their representatives and get MPs and MLAs who are more committed to the Dalit cause. Mayawati’s BSP received the third highest number of popular votes across India, after the BJP and Congress, in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, but couldn’t win even a single seat in the Lower House.

The BJP and RSS also organised several events across the country to mark the Ambedkar birth anniversary, including releasing a special supplement of RSS mouthpieces — Organiser and Panchjanya — on the life and times of Ambedkar. The BJP-RSS have highlighted how Ambedkar and RSS had several points of agreement. BJP President Amit Shah and Home Minister Rajnath Singh kick-started the party’s Bihar election campaign with a rally in Patna. Shah told the gathering that “not an inch of land” acquired by the government will go to corporate houses, and will be used for the development of villages. Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted his tribute to Ambedkar with the salutation ‘Jai Bhim’.

The BJP-ruled Municipal Corporation of Delhi declared a holiday on Tuesday. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said vacant seats reserved for scheduled castes will soon be filled.