A "Bit Absurd" Battle To Claim Ambedkar's Legacy

A bit absurd on both sides - was how Congress MP Shashi Tharoor described politicians squabbling to claim Dr BR Ambedkar's legacy on this day last year - his birth anniversary.

Over the years Dr Ambedkar - once dismissed by mainstream politicians as a 'sectarian figurehead' - and his legacy have been frequently called upon by political leaders to win votes.

And nothing has changed since, with the primary political actors - the BJP and Congress among them - lining up public meetings and programmes to garland statues over the next week.

And so battlelines were drawn again Monday, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his BJP tossing jeers and alliterative barbs - 'vote bank ka virus' and 'destroyer of Constitutions' this year - at the Congress and other opposition parties, including the Samajwadi Party and BSP.

That Dr Ambedkar's rich legacy has come down, in large measure, to such squabbles, leaving the marginalised communities he fought for as the 'prize', is a sad statement in itself.

Sadder still is a situation many believe sidesteps his warnings on religious fundamentalism and upper caste dominance, and insistence on safeguards in the Constitution.

PM vs Congress On Ambedkar Jayanti

The 2025 squabble over Dr Ambedkar's legacy began this morning with Mr Modi attacking the Congress for opposing amendments to the Waqf Act, and accusing it of having sabotaged Dr Ambedkar's electoral fortunes in the 1952 Lok Sabha election and the 1954 Bhandara bypoll.

"We must never forget what the Congress did to Babasaheb Ambedkar. While he was alive, the party insulted him... made him lose elections twice. Congress wanted to uproot him... they conspired to keep him out of the system," he raged in Haryana's Hisar.

The Congress' Mallikarjun Kharge hit back by red-flagging delayed reservation of a third of parliamentary and Assembly seats for women, as 'proof' the BJP does not actually care.

The party has also re-flagged last year's row over Amit Shah's Rajya Sabha comments; the Home Minister had said taking Dr Ambedkar's name had become the "fashion".

The Congress had responded fiercely then, claiming the remark proved the BJP and its ideological parent, the RSS, "wanted to implement Manusmriti instead of the Constitution".

Akhilesh Yadav, Rest Chip In

Meanwhile, the AAP, defeated in Delhi by the BJP, has waded in too, with party boss Arvind Kejriwal accusing both the BJP and Congress of having neglected Dr Ambedkar's legacy. Only his party had, Mr Kejriwal claimed, pointing to the focus on education when it ruled Delhi.

"... we did not allow private schools (in Delhi) to increase fees but, as soon as the BJP government came, private schools pounced upon them (the parents) like wolves..."

Earlier the AAP and BJP also went head-to-head over repositioning portraits of Dr Ambedkar in the office of the new Chief Minister - Rekha Gupta. These were moved to the side walls.

Samajwadi Party boss Akhilesh Yadav and BSP chief Mayawati also made declarations on expected lines, hailing the Constitution that Dr Ambedkar drafted and demanding the emancipation of marginalised communities, including Dalits and Scheduled Tribes.

But the back-and-forth isn't just about rhetoric or one-upmanship. It is, as it always is in politics, about scoring brownie points with voters, particularly with an election due in Bihar.

It is about the Constitution and the amended Waqf Act passed by Parliament this month, with the opposition declaring the latter has been designed to rob Muslims of their rights.

Over The Constitution...

The battle over the Constitution carries over from the opposition's attacks last year while campaigning for the Lok Sabha election. The Congress and other parties repeatedly claimed the BJP's 'abki baar 400 paar' target was a pretext to ensure it had votes to change the Constitution.

The BJP laughed off those claims, pointing out it had the numbers even after victories in the 2014 and 2019 elections. The 400-seat target, Amit Shah said, was simply to expand its power.

But when votes were counted, the BJP fell well short of its target; in fact the party, for the first time since it came to power in 2014, did not have a solo mandate to form the government.

The setback stung the BJP, particularly since it meant it needed support from Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's JDU and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu's TDP.

And with elections this year in Bihar - a state with significant Dalit and Muslim populations, according to the 2023 caste survey - Mr Modi's party is determined to avoid a re-run, or risk losing sway among groups that, together, make up over 30 per cent of the state.

Hence the PM's focused attacks today on the Congress as the "destroyer of Constitutions".

The opposition is unlikely to let go of this issue, with Akhilesh Yadav warning voters "any weakening of the Constitution will directly impact the strength of India's democracy".

After Bihar 2025...

The Constitution as a battleground between the BJP and the Congress-led opposition isn't confined to the Bihar election later this year.

Bengal - which the BJP is desperate to win, for the first time ever, and so quench the growing challenge of Mamata Banerjee - will vote in 2026 and Uttar Pradesh - the BJP's undisputed bastion in recent years - will vote the following year.

Bengal and UP are home to large chunks of Dalit and Muslim populations, so outreach efforts today and over the next week will be expected to hold each political party in good stead when campaigning begins for these polls.