Anybody who understands Hindi knows that there was nothing disrespectful about Dr BR Ambedkar in Home Minister Amit Shah’s speech. But who cares about the truth? The entire opposition has climbed onto the protest band wagon protesting the ‘disrespect’, and demanding Shah’s resignation. Do politicians believe that the people are so easily fooled? It is perfectly alright if there is a demand for Ambedkar to be given his rightful place in history and all kinds of movements can be launched in this regard. It is also okay if parties vie with each other to seem the deepest upholders of Ambedkar’s principles, but why does it need a fake narrative? Those who do so only reveal that they have nothing substantial in their political ideology.
While it cannot be said that the debate on the Constitution in Parliament was a brilliant one, it did bring focus on the essentials of Indian democracy. To bring this down to street level agitations and the rowdyism witnessed outside Parliament can only be the result of one side feeling it ended up the loser. And, as always, Rahul Gandhi managed to become the focus of an unsavory incident that resulted in injuries (probably exaggerated) to two BJP MPs. Is it for this that they have all been elected to Parliament? What kind of an example is being set for all those wishing to join politics to serve the nation?
The whole purpose of the democratic structure is that political parties can rise above their differences so that the nation can be taken in the right direction. Surely there are people of the required character to perform their duty in a manner that this objective can be achieved, even among the present elected lot. That is what Ambedkar wanted – not the pretence, but the reality. He did not wish to be deified so that people could fight for his honour. He wished to be understood so that the principles enshrined in the constitution could be intelligently interpreted and followed. That would be true homage to him.
