With an eye on Dalit vote, Arvind Kejriwal seeks claim over Ambedkar's legacy

AAP convenor Arvind Kejriwal (File image) (Source: PTI)

Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) convenor Arvind Kejriwal was on overdrive last week to claim the legacy of BR Ambedkar, calling himself a big devotee of the freedom fighter-Dalit icon.

Kejriwal asserted that he will take the teachings of Ambedkar to every Indian household.

On the 131st birth anniversary of father of the Indian Constitution on April 14, the Chief Minister declared that the Delhi government’s Specialised School of Excellence will hereon be known as the BR Ambedkar School of Specialised Excellence.

Kejriwal also called Ambedkar the greatest of the sons born in India in the last 100-150 years.

Why this sudden overreach? With its election symbol being a broom, AAP has right from its inception claimed that it champions the cause of the downtrodden, and has consistently bagged substantial Dalit votes in Delhi.

Now, Kejriwal's fresh bid to claim Ambedkar's legacy is part of his well-crafted strategy to consolidate the support of Dalits not only in Delhi but across India.

As evident from the recent assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, a large number of Dalits moved away from the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), a party founded by Kanshi Ram in 1984 to fight for the rights of the Scheduled Castes and other oppressed classes. Today there is a visible crisis in the Dalit politics, and the community seems to be looking for an alternative leadership. It has moved beyond Mayawati and her BSP opting for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and other parties.

The emergence of the BSP had hit the Congress hard as Dalits apart from Muslims and upper castes till then formed its core vote-bank. With the decline of the BSP, AAP will be trying to fill that vacuum.

Perhaps Kejriwal sees an opportunity in the decimation of the BSP in Uttar Pradesh, and AAP’s historic victory in Punjab (which at ~34 percent has the highest Dalit population in India).

Overall, the Dalits constitute around 17 percent of India’s 1.32 billion population.

As Kejriwal plans to expand AAP beyond Delhi and Punjab, he is clearly trying to woo the Dalits and other weaker sections by appropriating Ambedkar.

This is also a shift from AAP's early days when Mahatma Gandhi was its inspiration and guiding light.

Even the 2011 agitation by the India Against Corruption (IAC), from which AAP was born, was inspired by the Gandhian ideology. Social activist Anna Hazare, who was the face of the anti-corruption protests, had borrowed Gandhi's form of agitation by undertaking a fast at Delhi's Ramlila Maidan.

But those were the initial days. Soon after the Punjab victory, AAP volunteers and supporters were heard shouting “Babasaheb tera sapna adhura, Kejriwal karenge poora” (Babasaheb your dream is incomplete, Kejriwal will fulfil it). This was similar to the BSP’s initial day slogan of “'Babasaheb tera mission adhura, Kanshi Ram karenge poora”. Evidently Kanshi Ram has been replaced with Kejriwal.

The iconisation and politicisation of Ambedkar is not new in Indian politics. Over the years almost every political party has sought to appropriate Ambedkar with an eye on the Dalit vote-bank. With parallels in Dravidian politics, AAP’s focus on Ambedkar through education is refreshing, and one that will be a cause for concern for other political parties.

Aurangzeb Naqshbandi  is a senior journalist who has been covering the Congress for 15 years, and is currently associated with Pixstory.

Views are personal and do not represent the stand of this publication.