The Battle for Babasaheb: Prakash Ambedkar on Legacy, Politics, and the Constitution
By Kumkum Chadha
When Rahul Gandhi walked the 2024 Lok Sabha marketing campaign path with a pocket version of the Structure in hand, it struck a chord. His rallying cry that the Structure was below menace might have helped the Opposition verify the BJP’s advance. The saffron social gathering, for all its confidence, fell in need of the 400-plus seats it boasted about—and even did not safe a majority by itself.
However beneath the electoral floor lies a deeper actuality: each social gathering now desires a chunk of Dr BR Ambedkar’s legacy. The person as soon as marginalised throughout his lifetime is now a prized icon—used as a political talisman.
Few observe this with sharper perception than Dr Prakash Ambedkar, Babasaheb’s grandson, former MP, and unflinching commentator. In a candid conversation, he exposes the contradictions, hypocrisies, and instrumentalisation of Ambedkar’s identify. “Political events aren’t cashing in on his ideology. They’re cashing in on the rising class of residents who will always remember him,” he says.
From Dalits and tribals to Muslims, Prakash notes, Babasaheb is now seen as a guardian determine. “Even Muslims say it’s due to his Structure that we’re secure on this nation.”
ON RAHUL GANDHI, CONGRESS AND CONSTITUTIONAL POSTURING
Whereas Rahul Gandhi might carry the Structure, Prakash asks a pointed query: “Has he learn it? Has he understood its philosophy?” He calls out Article 15—meant to protect in opposition to discrimination on caste and faith—and questions whether or not the Congress practises the values it professes. “There isn’t a democracy left within the Congress. State leaders have been diminished to puppets,” he says.
Even sharper is his critique of Congress’s contradiction in embracing Jawaharlal Nehru and Ambedkar: “You can’t carry each Nehru and Dr Ambedkar. Their worldviews had been basically completely different—on overseas coverage, faith, nationalism.”
ON BJP, MODI AND HISTORICAL AMNESIA
Although agreeing with PM Narendra Modi’s criticism of Congress for denying Ambedkar the Bharat Ratna, Prakash factors out that the RSS and Hindu Mahasabha additionally opposed him: “In 1949, they burnt his effigies.
In the course of the Mumbai elections, they united with Congress to defeat him.” Dr Ambedkar was a nationalist. They had been casteist and non secular. They didn’t desire a chief who rose on benefit.”
ON AYODHYA AND JUDICIAL EVASION
Commenting on the Babri Masjid verdict, he calls out the judiciary for ignoring archaeological findings: “Had the courts been trustworthy, they’d have included the archaeological report. As a substitute, they went with majority sentiment. That’s suspending justice, not delivering it.”
ON FUTURE FAULTLINES: AURANGZEB AS 2029’s AYODHYA
Prakash warns of a harmful flip in political discourse: the demonisation of Aurangzeb as the following communal flashpoint. “The temple is constructed. What subsequent? Aurangzeb. The BJP will use him to rally Hindus in 2029—make him the villain, undertaking itself because the saviour.”
When he laid a chaadar on Aurangzeb’s grave, it created controversy, however he says it helped calm tensions: “It defused a unstable scenario. The politics of demonisation will destroy us.”
ON CHINA, PoK AND NATIONAL STRATEGY
Prakash revisits his grandfather’s prescient warnings:
- On China: “Babasaheb predicted an assault in 1954. By 1962, it occurred.”
- On PoK: “He mentioned if you happen to take it on, do it totally—not midway. Half measures will bleed the nation. And right now, the nation is bleeding.”
—The author is an writer, journalist and political commentator
