Even 60 years after his death, Dr B.R. Ambedkar still remains a most politically relevant figure. As the events of the past few years have revealed and as increasing dalit assertion shows—no one can rule India without invoking Ambedkar.
His 127th birth anniversary drew much more attention from the political class as they invoked his name by paying their respects to the founding father. After the massive April 2 Bharat Bandh organised to protest against the Supreme Court order on the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, the BJP particularly made sure that its leaders celebrated Ambedkar Jayanti on Saturday.
Starting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP president Amit Shah, ministers and party MPs spread out in various areas, particularly those dominated by the dalits.
Modi was in Chhattisgarh on Saturday where he invoked the contribution of Ambedkar in his elevation as the prime minister. Amit Shah was at the party headquarters in Delhi to pay floral tributes to the leader.
A day earlier, the prime minister had travelled in a metro to inaugurate the newly constructed Ambedkar Memorial in Delhi. Modi even paid tributes to Ambedkar at the Parliament complex. Leaders from across the political spectrum also paid floral tributes to him inside the central hall of Parliament.
The BJP claims that it has brought Ambedkar back to political discourse, an icon whose contribution, the saffron party alleges, was earlier ignored by the Congress. Its ideological mentor, the RSS, too for the past few years, has shifted its focus to the dalit icon by including him in the pantheon of Hindu leaders.
The increasing awareness among the dalits is leading to their consolidation. During the 2014 elections and subsequent Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, a section of dalits voted for the BJP under a strong Hindutva wave. However, as caste differences surface after the incidents of atrocities against them in Gujarat, the dalits voted differently, which led to a scare for the BJP.
To calm the dalit anger, the government is already mulling bringing an ordinance in the SC/ST Act, if the Supreme Court sticks to its earlier stance on the misuse of the law. It would require much more deft handling on the part of the government to assuage the feelings of the community as voices of dissent have even arisen from among the BJP's dalit MPs.