A pathway to office with power (Marginalised at the centre)

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 A pathway to office with power (Marginalised at the centre)

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• B R Ambedkar's anniversary 2019 : This year's anniversary (on 14-04-2019) also coincides with a national election that is centred on the personality of a major leader. This kind of devotion (by a party to one personality) is exceptional in India. Even Indira Gandhi fell short.
• In 1949 : Dr Ambedkar said in his last speech to the Constituent Assembly that "we Indians must not lay our liberties at the feet of even a great man, because Bhakti in politics is a sure road to degradation and eventual dictatorship“.
• Nehru at that time : This speech came when Gandhi wasn't around, and Nehru wasn't unchallenged. The Sardar was still alive. Yet, Ambedkar realised that the Indian psyche would work in a certain way, having seen how Indian history was recorded (only great men and women, no one else!).
• Intellectually and Politically : While Ambedkar was intellectually a towering giant, politically he was not successful. He was seen only as the leader of the depressed classes. The Poona Pact with Gandhi had ended Ambedkar's dream of separate electorate for depressed classes (something the British PM Ramsay MacDonald had accepted).
• Unelectable : Ambedkar explained how the Hindu majority only elected those S.C. candidates whom they could use as their tool. He himself was unelectable on his own strength (the SC population not being in majority). He came to the Constituent Assembly from Bengal, on a seat arranged by Jogendra Nath Mandal, who then became the first Law Minister of Pakistan. That seat was lost due to partition, and Ambedkar was elected from Bombay with Congress support. 
• 1951-52 election : Ambedkar lost from the Bombay seat. Then he lost another by-election from Bhandara. He was taken in the RS.
• Joint Electorates : Ambedkar remained bitter about joint electorates (and not separate electorates). He wrote that in joint electorates, the Untouchables get office without any power, as they are dependent on the majority to come to office.
• Office without power : Gandhi said in June 1947 that "if I have my way, the President of the Indian republic would be a chaste and brave Bhangi girl, and I shall be her servant, like others (Nehru, Patel, Rajendra Babu etc.)" The Congress turned down the suggestion.
• Jagjivan Ram : He was a great Dalit leader and was in every central cabinet till 1979. The Congress, however, never gave them real power.
• Reservations in govt. jobs : It was only through this that Dalits gained long-term access to power. The BAMCEF (Backward and Minority Communities Employees Federation) expressed grievances of employees in north India. Its leader Kanshi Ram had seen the withering away of Ambedkarite movement and also of the radical Dalit Panthers movement.
• Kanshi Ram : He created the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) that became strong in under a decade. His protege Mayawati became the UP CM in 1995, in a "miracle of democracy" (PM Rao's words).
• Blacks in the US : Despite the 1863 "Emancipation Proclamation" by Abraham Lincoln, it took more than a century in US for the civil rights movement to get there. Then came the final seal of approval with Barack Obama's election in 2008.
• Indian society : India's tradition of inequality is much deeper, and longer. The marginalised have been denied a share in power at the Centre for far too long. In the meanwhile, Ambedkar's struggle to educate, organise and agitate against inequality will go on.
• Summary : For a long time now, Dalits in India have been given office without power, and it is time for that to genuinely change.

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