Congress lionised only 'one family'; Like Sardar Patel, Dr Ambedkar too was ignored :: For BJP, of course things came late ::: Sickulars did not miss the song "Dynasty is glue holding factions of Congress together"

BJP national president J P Nadda has tried to give a clear political message a number of times. "Congress leaders love spreading lies about India on foreign soil, but they never bothered about a place in London where Dr. Ambedkar himself lived," he tweeted. 

Nadda further said - "During PM Narendra Modi's 2015 UK visit, he went there, and subsequently, it was acquired by the Maharashtra Government." For long the Lotus party is considered an outfit of Brahmins and Baniyas and hence there have been reasons to believe that Dalits and even OBCs would stay away from it. 

But politics is always dynamic and a powerful leader like Narendra Modi can always give a further push to make things ever changing, Modi himself is an OBC and yet a chief protagonist of Hindu nationalism, These helped BJP a lot, Hence the Hindu consolidation has been solid in Uttar Pradesh in 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha polls and two assembly polls in 2017 and 2022 as well,

The 'neglected' Dalits came out of Mayawati-led BSP hold and embraced BJP and the entire political scenario changed. 

The Modi government has been very sensitive to Dalit or SC aspirations and hence in 2018 August 2nd, it overturned the Supreme Court order through a legislation and restored the stringent Atrocities Act.  

In 2024, thus Amit Shah has an argument to make when he said he does not belong to a party or a society that will insult Dr Ambedkar. 

In the Congress scheme of things, there were other factors playing. Nehru and his family interests overshadowed everything. Here is one illustration --

Ambedkar advocated a separate electorate for the Untouchables. He even managed to persuade the British government to grant it. But Mahatma Gandhi disagreed. Nehru did not utter a word in support of Ambedkar.  

(Perry Anderson, The Indian Ideology, Three Essays Collective)

 

Ambedkar also differed with Nehru on matters involving Mulims.

"The Prime Minister’s (Nehru's) whole time and attention is devoted for the protection of the Muslims. I yield to none, not even to the Prime Minister, in my desire to give the Muslims of India the utmost protection wherever and whenever they stand in need of it. 

But what I want to know is, are the Muslims the only people who need protection?," he had said.

Ambedkar took Mahatma Gandhi's Satyagraha Movement forward and turned it into one of Dalit assertion. In a way, Ambedkar took the movement from where Gandhi stopped. With this, he gave Dalits a potent weapon.

Ambedkar also founded the Scheduled Castes Federation in 1942 to campaign for the rights of the Dalit community.

According to Dr Ambedkar, a political revolution couldn’t succeed unless it was preceded by a socio-religious revolution. But the Congress never worked for a social revolution aimed at dismantling caste.  Dr Ambedkar considered Indian society a conglomeration of castes with contradictory interests. Nehru did not see Indian society that way, wrote Mukhtiyar Singh in 'Forward Press' (2019). 

In many quarters - albeit-pro-Nehru schools of wisdom - it is given out that it was actually Nehru who had greater role in making of the Constitution. It is claimed Nehru started helping his father Motilal Nehru a few years back on the same.

They argue that it may be an erroneous belief that the contents of the Constitution were conceived, and then authored, by Dr Ambedkar. 

He was only the chairman of the drafting committee, which was one of the eight committees set up by the Constituent Assembly. 

It's also the fact Mahatma Gandhi asked Nehru and Patel to appoint Dr Ambedkar as the head of the drafting committee, in recognition of the latter’s outstanding knowledge of legal and constitutional matters. 

What dynasts and their ecosystem have to say ? 

The ecosystem safely includes foreign media. 

"The family has long been the glue holding factions of the main opposition Congress party together, through Modi's massive mandates in 2014 and 2019 and his unexpected loss of a parliamentary majority in elections that ended this month," went a news story by news agency Reuters in mid-June 2024. 

Ambedkar being sworn in as Law Minister in Nehru cabinet

Ambedkar has attained the kind of cult following that no other politician in India has achieved. The reverence for Babasaheb among Dalits, who have his portraits, is unfathomable.

The Ambedkar pride is synonymous with the Dalit movement.

The Opposition actually wanted to use Shah's remarks against this backdrop and the BJP was quick to realise that. That's why the bigwigs stepped in to firefight because no political party in India can afford to face Dalit ire.