{mosimage}With crucial elections in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh around the corner, the battle for the coveted political pie from the legacy of Dr BR Ambedkar began on Tuesday, the birth anniversary of the architect of Indian Constitution. While the BJP has drawn extensive plans to woo the Dalits and other backward constituencies, the Congress has drawn out a year-long plan to ensure the legacy of one of its leaders is not appropriated by its rivals. Then there is Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party, which considers itself the natural heir of the Ambedkar legacy and also hopes to resurrect its fortunes in the UP polls.
Amit Shah asks BJP to take Ambedkar to people
With Congress going on an overdrive to celebrate Dr Ambedkar's birth anniversary, BJP has stepped up its campaign with its president Amit Shah asking workers to hold nationwide events on Tuesday and take the Dalit icon's ideas to the people. Shah himself will be at Patna's Gandhi Maidan along with top BJP leaders to sound the bugle for Bihar elections, scheduled later this year.
"Ambedkar was not merely a leader of Dalits but of all sections of society and every religion. BJP will organise programmes at local level across the country to mark his 125th birth anniversary and take his message to the people," Shah told a meeting of the party's Scheduled Caste Morcha.
Trying to strike a chord with Dalits, who are electorally crucial and are being wooed by major parties ahead of important Assembly elections, Shah said the BJP governments in different states had developed places associated with Ambedkar like Nagpur and Mumbai and the Centre was working to develop the place in London where he stayed for years.
Noting that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will lay the foundation stone for the Ambedkar International Centre in the capital on April 20, BJP General Secretary Ramlal said the party would run a year-long Social Equality Campaign. Social Justice Minister Thawar Chand Gehlot also spoke about various welfare measures the government was running. Morcha head Dushyanat Kumar Gautam said it would launch a book next month which will highlight various aspects of Ambedkar's life.
Congress takes pot-shots at 'tokenism' by parties
Amid the political race to claim Dr Ambedkar's legacy, Congress took pot-shots at other parties, claiming they have mostly engaged in "tokenism" in his name as it announced nationwide programmes to celebrate the 125th anniversary of the Dalit icon.
"Most other non-Congress political parties have engaged in tokenism in order to appropriate the national icon for cheap political purposes...there has been a deliberate misinformation campaign about Ambedkar and Congress party, which needs to be corrected," the party said in a statement after Congress President Sonia Gandhi chaired a meeting to chalk out the celebration plans.
Rahul Gandhi will attend the national launch of the Dalit icon's s 125th birth anniversary celebrations in Mhow, Madhya Pradesh next month, the second major public outreach programme of Congress after Kisan-Khet Mazdoor rally here on April 19 against NDA's land acquisition law.
Faced with the daunting task of reviving its fortunes since the unprecedented setback in Lok Sabha poll last year, the Congress is making a serious bid to counter the portrayal of Ambedkar as "anti-Congress". "Ambedkar is such an icon today that we fail to fully appreciate the remarkable scale of what he accomplished," Sonia Gandhi said as she talked about the faith he "shared with" Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and all the stalwarts of the freedom movement.
The year-long celebration plans by the Congress have been chalked out at a time when the NDA government, BJP and the RSS have also decided to highlight the contribution of Ambedkar. The Congress's move came amidst concerns voiced in the party that the BJP was trying to "appropriate" the legacies of icons who were either ignored or perceived to have been ignored by the party.
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