Dr. B.R. Ambedkar’s 124th birth anniversary on Tuesday became a hot spot for all political parties of all hues to lay claim to his legacy and, in effect, reach out to Dalit voters. The enthusiasm of the parties to launch year-long celebrations seemed to have been spurred by the fact that Dalits had not voted only along caste lines in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
The BJP used the day to soft-launch its campaign for the Bihar Assembly polls scheduled later this year, with a ‘Viraat Karyakarta Samagam’ in Patna, addressed by party president Amit Shah and Home Minister Rajnath Singh.
The Congress launched the year-long celebration of Dr. Ambedkar’s 125th birth year from Mhow, his birthplace in Madhya Pradesh, will end in Nagpur, where Dr. Ambedkar converted to Buddhism with his followers in 1956.
A number of programmes were held all over the country to mark the occasion, including in Parliament. It was attended by Congress president Sonia Gandhi and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Dalit voters are not homogenous, and differences among Scheduled Castes, in both class and caste terms, will affect where the vote goes.
The RSS is trying to use B.R. Ambedkar to “sophisticate” its “dangerous agenda of ghar wapsi,” Dalit rights activist and writer Kancha Ilaiah said. The Modi