Never has Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar, architect of the Constitution, been invoked in Punjab as fervently and continuously as within the first week of the AAP authorities. One of the maiden selections the Bhagwant Singh Mann-led authorities took was to put in his image together with that of Bhagat Singh in authorities places of work, a follow that can now be adopted in Delhi, which can be internet hosting a musical on Ambedkar.
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“We will run the state according to the ideals of Bhagat Singh and Babasaheb,” Mann promised at his swearing-in on March 16. Later, he introduced statues of the 2 on the Punjab Vidhan Sabha in Chandigarh.
It’s a step that has gained over Balwinder Jit, the Dalit sarpanch of Talhan village close to Jalandhar, who admits he bucked the AAP wave to help the Akali-BSP candidate within the latest polls, solely as a result of he stood for “Babasaheb”. Singh, who breaks down whereas dwelling on the hardships Ambedkar needed to endure throughout his life, says, “I’m glad he is finally getting his due in a state, from which he had high hopes. But the government must follow his ideals and not just restrict itself to iconography.”
Political observers see in it a technique by AAP to counter the BJP’s hegemonic narrative. “In both Bhagat Singh and Babasaheb, they have two secular symbols with universal appeal. Together they symbolize the syncretic culture of Punjab,” says Dr Paramjit Singh Judge, a professor of political science at Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar.
Ambedkar as a logo is central to the discourse of equality. He is just not solely iconic for Dalits, who kind over 32% of Punjab’s inhabitants (the best proportion within the nation), however can be a logo of particular person equality enshrined within the Constitution.
In the latest Assembly elections, whereas the Congress hoped to consolidate SC votes by advantage of getting put in Charanjit Singh Channi as the primary Dalit CM of the state, the Akalis had been banking on get together president Sukhbir Singh Badal’s promise of a Dalit deputy CM and an Ambedkar college within the Doaba area, which has the most important Dalit numbers within the state. However, the group had voted like the remainder of the state, and AAP had gained 28 of the 34 reserved seats.
In Punjab, Ambedkar is a well-recognized presence, notably in Doaba, the place his portraits are commonplace. Both the Congress and Akali Dal pay their annual homage to him on his start anniversary on April 14. After taking on as CM, Channi’s first step had been laying the inspiration stone for an Ambedkar museum, unfold over 250 acres, in Kapurthala. In 2020, a Post Matric Scholarship Scheme for SC college students had been named by the Congress authorities after Ambedkar.
Prof Ronki Ram, an eminent Dalit scholar who occupies Shaheed Bhagat Singh chair in Panjab University, Chandigarh, says the 2 icons complement one another. If Ambedkar symbolises the Constitution and the values therein, “Bhagat Singh embodies the Preamble”, he says.
Prof Ronki Ram additionally talks about how Ambedkar’s join with Punjab goes again to pre-Partition days. “After Maharashtra, it was from the Punjabi society that he got a large following and strength. His close aide Nanak Chand Rattu was from a village in Doaba.”
It was Rattu who found Ambedkar had died in his sleep. “Rattu said that the evening before his death, Babasaheb told him, ‘It’s with great effort that I have been able to bring this caravan till here, if they can’t push it further, don’t let it slide’,” says Prof Ronki Ram.
Mangu Ram Bugowal, founding father of the Ad Dharam motion behind getting a definite spiritual id for SCs in Punjab, additionally revered Ambedkar, as did different group leaders corresponding to Charan Das Nidhark and Kishan Das, a well-heeled leather-based service provider from Boota Mandi in Jalandhar .
Akalis, who declare to be those upholding the beliefs of social justice espoused by Ambedkar, with schemes corresponding to Shagun and atta-dal, had been on good phrases with the architect of the Constitution. The e-book ‘Fifty Years of Punjab Politics (1920-70)’, by Harcharan Singh Bajwa, member of the Akali Dal Working Committee from 1931 to 1960, claims that it was Ambedkar who had suggested Akali leaders corresponding to Giani Kartar Singh to hunt a Punjabi suba as a substitute of a Sikh state.
In the early years after Independence, the Republican Party of India, with its roots within the Scheduled Castes Federation led by Ambedkar, did nicely in Punjab.
In the current, Prof Emanual Nahar says the Congress victory in half-a-dozen seats dominated by Dalit Christians alerts the political dividends that await AAP whether it is profitable in its Ambedkar appropriation. “Be it Gurdaspur, Dera Baba Nanak, or Qadian, the Congress gained these seats solely as a result of the Dalit Christians voted en masse for the get together. AAP has carried out nicely by honoring Babasaheb. He carved a singular id for the Dalits, we are able to always remember him.”
But in Mansa, the center of Malwa, Bhagwant Singh Samon, the state president of the Mazdoor Mukti Morcha, is unmoved by these overtures. “Babasaheb was towards buttparasti (idolatory). He used to scoff at this enterprise of putting in statues. AAP is merely utilizing his identify, they need to as a substitute attempt to comply with his beliefs.”
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With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS
