India is passing
through a serious structural crisis and the manifestation of this crisis is
manifold. The failure of the economy is obvious with the total surrendering of
policies to World Bank and WTO guidelines. The chanting of nationalist tunes by
BJP is both the frustration of the failing state capacities in the wake of
aggressive neoliberal policies and also increasing material crisis across the
country i.e. rising inflation, downfall of permanent employment, cut down of
subsidies for farmers and students. Hence, we get the excessive doses of
saffronisation in education, and on streets with saffron goons asking everyone
to chant “bharat mata ki jai” as if it will resolve all the economic and social
crises magically, instead these are attempts to hide the systemic oppression of
students, working masses and dalits under Modi rule. What is the need of them
in colouring Ambedkar with saffron? Is that merely for vote bank politics?
Nope, its all to convert all naïve dalits as a ideologically strong
infantry/footmen in the battalion of their war field. That’s what happened in,
Gujarat riot of 2002, were naive dalits were ideologically strengthened to work
against their own interests. So the move by Hindutva forces in bringing dalits
under their own umbrella is for the long run of their ideology but not for a
while alone.
The recent activities
of the current BJP regime are doing multi-coloured project for these causes.
They acquired and converted the memorial hall of ‘Number 10, King Henry road,
London’ where Ambedkar stayed during 1921 – 22, laid foundation stone to ‘Dr
Ambedkar international centre’ in New Delhi, they cried for Rohit Vemula’s
death as a ‘mother of India has lost its child’, umpteen numbers of projects
are expected as soon as possible. At the same time, they are more conscious on
their real and intact agenda of building hindu rashtra. They banned Study
circle named with Ambedkar and Periyar (APSC IITM), orchestrated the death of
Rohit Vemula, FTII, JNU thus converting all educational institutes into the
hierarchical ‘gurukul’, killing more tribals of central India in the name of
‘Operation no name’, breaking dissent of any form, are some of their steps
towards the goal. Even some times they speak about the ‘social justice
(pseudo)’ but many of times they are unmasked and their real faces are exposed.
Recently, Mohan Baghwat seeked to review on quota policy, Amit shah justified
the sacred varna system, the spewed poisonous statement of MLA’s and MP’s of
BJP are move towards their ‘Ram raj’ or ‘Hindu rashtra’ agenda. The latest fee
hike in IITs exposes the neoliberal face of Modi regime. But at the same time
the complete fee waiving for students from the SC/ST category is foul play of
the BJP to regain the Dalit support which they lost the ground after the
complete expose in APSC-IITM and HCU issues. The same govt. stopped the
fellowship to Rohit Vemula and forced him to die for his stand on anti-hindutva
policy, is now announcing fee waiver to SC/ST category is nothing but an
absolute mockery. With such a divide and conquer approach, BJP intentionally
attempts to intensify anti-reservation attitude among students and easily
diverted the main issue of hand-over of IITs to global capital. The step
towards two lakh fee hike, intake of 10000 foreign students into IITs and
financial autonomy is a larger push for privatizing the Indian higher education
sector. During the 10th ministerial conference of WTO held in Nairobi last
December, Modi government has agreed for a complete privatization in higher
education, according to GATS. Based on this, the New Education Policy – 2015 is
prepared and is yet to be presented in the parliament for approval.
RSS has been working
systematically since the BJP came power, to resurrect this country as Hindu
Rashtra, to counter all measures of justice, with one stroke i.e. the stroke of
Brahminism! We should recall B. R. Ambedkar on his 125th birth anniversary, who
has said in 1935 – “I had the misfortune of being born with the stigma of an
Untouchable; but I will not die a Hindu”. Hindu Fundamentalists appropriate,
with utter lack of shame, Ambedkar who embraced Buddhism in 1956. As Ambedlkar
rightly asserted in Annihilation of Caste, “you must not forget that if you
wish to bring about & breach in the system then you have got to apply the
dynamite to the Vedas and the Shastras, which deny any part to reason, to Vedas
and Shastras, which deny any part to morality. You must destroy the Religion of
the Shrutis and the Smritis. Nothing else will avail. This is my considered
view of the matter”! The ruling class political parties like BJP and Congress
are celebrating Ambedkar's birth anniversary as 'Samrasta Diwas' (Social
Harmony Day) to keep the status quo intact in this country, but the real
Ambedkar is - as Anand Teltumde says “Ambedkar’s samata is not samrasata” - the
rebel against the braminical caste hierarchy.
The current regime has
spreaded the disease of nationalism into all the institutions i.e. judiciary,
parliament, universities etc. The Indian state has failed in protecting the
lives and rights of dalits and other working masses, whether it is case of
Delta Meghwal, burning of dalit huts, changes in labour laws or the
institutional murder of Rohith Vemula. It is the same state which tries to get
legitimacy by appropriating Ambedkar's advocacy of constitutional politics,
leave alone such attempts by political parties. During the state celebration
Ambedkar's birth anniversary, the extravagant show by RSS and BJP and Sangh
parivar would be like celebrating his birthday along with the portraits of
Hedgewar and Golwaker. They also authenticated with their twisted statement
like ‘Ambedkar believed on Sangh ideologies’ (Feb 15, 2015, by RSS
Sarsanghchalak, Mohan Bhagwat.). They are none other than, the yet another step
of hindutva forces, gonna appropriate Ambedkar under Hindutva fold. Let them to
celebrate his birthday, but the trap behind all these entire moves should be
analysed profoundly.
Nowadays the
celebration of Ambedkar’s birthday anniversary is merely turned out as a
ceremonial function. This is the greatest betrayal to Ambedkar, who is being
worshipped as a sheer idol rather than following the ways he put forth for
caste annihilation. This has to be viewed in a self critic way by many identity
political organizations. Many identity political parties and organization are
constricted themselves and put Ambedkar into the ‘cage of exclusive dalit
identity’. They even criticize that dalit problems can be handled only by
another dalit or dalit organization. That is the reason why, Arundathi Roy was
sternly criticized by some dalit intellectuals when she gave an introduction to
Ambedkar’s “Annihilation of Caste” (AoC) by writing ‘The doctor and the saint’,
that is the reason why the protest for Rohit Vemula’s cause has become the sole
property of many identity based organisations. These activities of
intellectuals of identity politics and identity political groups may simply
open the gate for the closure of ‘caste annihilation’ struggle among the larger
masses. To distinguish between the friends and enemies in the political arena
is more important for the success of AoC. Otherwise the enemies may engulf
Ambedkar by appropriating for their political benefits.
Thus, it is in fight
against Brahminical fascism that WE NEED AMBEDKAR MORE THAN EVER! It was
Ambedkar, who gave the foundational idea that a nation which did not cater to
justice is no nation at all! The ruling classes have strangled the space in
education and media to allow any voices of dissent to surface. As has been
known to people, more than 80 percent of Dalits are located in rural areas as
landless labourers and marginal number of them living in urban areas mostly in
slums and working in informal sectors. Therefore, it is the historic need to
build a class unity across castes to fight against saffron neoliberalism.
Ambedkar has many times argued against capitalism and way back in 1938 while
addressing railway workers in Manmad, announced that untouchables have two
enemies: 'Brahmanism and Capitalism’. Hence, it calls for dalit mobilization as
part of class wide movement for issues beyond reservations, for instance, of
wage labour, affordable medical facilities, affordable education and economic
justice. Annihilation of caste has to be done along with the class struggle
towards new democracy. When we criticize pseudo-Left for maintaining a criminal
silence on the oppression of religion and caste, we also need to expose the
pseudo-Ambedkarites for dividing the movement through their sectarian
tendencies and criminal silence on the onslaught of neoliberal capitalism.
While the pseudo-Left in India views caste as only a superstructure problem
that caste will wither away once the class struggle is over, it shows the
failure of them in applying dialectical materialism towards the concrete
analysis of concrete conditions in resolving them. They follow Gandhian
attitude of reformism within the Hindu religion and cautiously avoiding the
fight against Brahminical Fascism and has no problem in the so called India's
glorious past of Vedas, Manusmriti, Ramayanas and Mahabarathas.
The dire need of the
hour for the student community is to know Ambedkar’s ideology towards the
‘establishment of caste free system’. Those who simply praise or celebrate
Ambedkar by name sake can never succeed in fulfilling his wish. Working towards
annihilation of caste only isolate the trickery moves of perpetrators. For that
Ambadkar has to be reinstated from identical politics into radical politics. We
need to extricate the real and radical Ambedkar as our guide in our struggle
against the Brahminical Fascism of our times.
As a student community
let us unite and annihilate the caste system, which is dictating both in the
base and as well as in the superstructure of our society.
