By Haider Abbas
There is a traditional euphoria, which lasts for around a week, to celebrate November 26th, as ‘Constitution Day’, the 75th this year, with laudatory accolades to BR Ambedkar, the Chairman of the Constituent Assembly, who gave a document to forward looking India.
The ruling party has no love lost for BR Ambdekar. Therefore, it is now pertinent to particularly analyze how the ruling party, Congress and Dalit-centirc Bahujan Samaj Party, have situated themselves vis-à-vis BR Ambedkar. Could these parties even do their precious-little to abide by the principle and acknowledge the real-reason as to how BR Ambedkar could attain such ‘greatest’ height, as the chief architect of our Constitution?
Now in all its actuality, it is time to reflect and scrutinize, after almost seven decades, as to how BR Ambedkar, could finally carve such a unique niche in history? Unravel his real story, which is hitherto deliberately hidden not only by right-wing ideologues but also by Dalit intellectuals!
BR Ambedkar is one of the foremost icons of modern India, though he’s certainly not the favourite of right wing ideologues. But how could he climb to the pinnacle and attain the mantle of an unsurpassable Dalit ideologue? It is not by a sheer coincidence, of course, that he was to have been denied any part in history, as he had lost almost all takers within Congress, after his campaign for ‘separate electorate’ for Dalits, on the lines of Muslims and Sikhs, and that the Congress had seen, BR Ambedkar did not win in Provincial Elections from Bombay in 1946! Thus, all curtains were down for him, as the chance to become a part of the coveted Constituent Assembly, a 296-members body, had all been stalled. This is what has to be put into perspective, all as while the nation is paying accolades to the Constitution right now.
Who did see that BR Ambedkar was never to be a part of the Assembly? It was Sardar Patel, the first Union Home Minister, an Other Backward Classes (OBC) , Kurmi leader of Congress, who had instructed the Congress Bombay head BG Kher, to never allow Ambedkar to become a part of it. This has been enunciated by A Anand, a co-author and a graphic biographer of Ambedkar in his book Bhimayana. But who ultimately ironed-out the wrinkles for BR Ambedkar? It is here that BR Ambedkar’s Muslim League connection comes into focus, which came through his friend Jogindar Nath Mondal, who ironically, is referred more for his ‘role-reversal’ from Pakistan, as he had gone to Pakistan, became the Chairman of Pakistan Constituent Assembly, took to its First Law Minister, but had come back to die in India in 1967.
It was only JN Mondal, who took BR Ambedkar’s candidature to undivided Bengal Muslim League government (1946), stalwart Husain Shaheed Suhrawardy, who made BR Ambedkar get elected to the Constituent Assembly! It may also be remembered that this Constituent Assembly came into force on 16 May 1946 under the Cabinet Mission Plan. The members for this Assembly were elected by the provincial assemblies under a single, transferable-vote system of proportional representation. The undivided Bengal Assembly had 250 seats in 1946. Muslim League had 113 seats and Congress had 86 seats. Thus, the Muslim League government smoothened the way of BR Ambedkar towards his ultimate hallmark in history.
However, it is also true that when Bengal was divided into two parts after partition, BR Ambedkar’s membership of the Constituent Assembly was cancelled. After that, Congress fully supported him and sent him afresh to the Constituent Assembly on the seat vacated by Mukund Ramrao Jayakar from Bombay. But despite the turnaround of Congress, it does not erase the aspect that Congress got him defeated from Bombay and he had to go far away from his home state to Bengal to enter the Constituent Assembly with the support of Muslim League.
On every November 26, when Constitution Day is celebrated, how many refer to the role of Muslim League/JN Mondal into the making of BR Ambedkar? Perhaps none. Do we ever hear the Dalit Supremo of Bahujan Samaj Party, Mayawati, make any attempt to revisit this legacy? Much to its wont, even the founder of BSP Kanshi Ram, has also perhaps, never referred to the role of Muslim League to resuscitate and establish BR Ambedkar.
There are fewer or rather never any articles delving in to probe the role of Muslim League in India. Christophe Jaffrelot in his pioneering work, Dr Ambedkar and Untouchability though writes, “In 1946, Ambedkar had contested elections to join this body (Constituent Assembly), not in Bombay, where Congress was the ruling party, but in Bengal, where he was elected after winning the support of the Muslim League.” Another writer Dwaipayan Sen, of great international repute, has dealt with issues of Dalits, JN Mondal/BR Ambedkar etc, in extensive detail. Will Dalit thinkers ever start to unequivocally thank Muslim League for it? In today’s India, it becomes quite tragically ironic that this facet of history has been deliberately omitted, whereas an acronym for JN Mondal as ‘Jogendar Ali Mollah’ is quite popularized. Despite every denial of space in history, the role of JN Mondal, Husain Shaheed Suhrawardy and Muslim League, stand out as something irreplaceable in the making of BR Ambedkar as his legacy stands today.
Perhaps, BR Ambedkar had long foreseen the fissures which have come out grotesquely today in Indian politics. He wanted to burn the Constitution in 1953, in his own ominous words, ‘my friends tell me that I have made the Constitution. But I am quite prepared to say that I shall be the first person to burn it out. (O)ur people must not forget that there are majorities and there are minorities, and they simply cannot ignore the minorities by saying, “Oh, no. To recognise you is to harm democracy.” I should say that the greatest harm will come by injuring the minorities. (Dr BR Ambedkar in the Rajya Sabha on 2 September 1953).”
Will anyone heed it? No, but perhaps with the exception of some left-over rational voices! Let the saner voices prevail.
Views expressed in the article are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent the editorial stance of Kashmir Observer
The writer is a former UP State Information Commissioner and a political analyst
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