The controversial speech of the home mister Amit Shah has stirred feelings of anger among the Dalits. We can notice how people have demonstrated their pain and anger against the derogatory remarks of the H M. Congress and the opposition have already demanded apology and resignation of the H M. While the ruling BJP has tried to come out of the hole that it has dug for itself by claiming that the statements of Amit Shah are misquoted and have also put their time tested strategy of blaming the congress for its past. It appears that the fire has caught the imagination of Indians and Indians are protesting . When the speech is available online , the question of misquoting does not arise. Moreover, by raking up the dark past of congress visa vis Dr. B R Ambedkar, BJP seems to have inadvertently opened its own past that has been hostile to the champion of the Dalits. It only highlights BJP’s closeness to Manu Smriti and manifests its distance from our constitution. Maybe one has to analyze the speech as we find in the media of the Raja Sabha. It becomes easy to demonstrate that the speech is indeed insulting Dr. Br Ambedkar and his work.
Our honorable home minister repeats the name Ambedkar six times. Repetition is simply a tautology and mean nothing but simply an emphasis. But what is done by adopting a sarcastic tenor and tone already betrays the speech. It already shows that in this case, the repetition of the name of Dr. Ambedkar is not merely a validating tautology. It clearly encodes within its repetition an inflicting humiliation not just on Dr. B R Ambedkar but also on the Ambedkarites who follow him passionately. By labelling their Ambedkarism as fashion, the said speech has attempted to demonstrate their fight for constitution and constitutional rights in bad light. This means the speech is speaking in multiple tongues and is not just humiliating Ambedkar, Ambedkarites and their politics, it also downgrades the constitution of our country as it suggests that doing Ambedkar is an aimless idolatrous activity. This becomes clear as the HM follows up his rant on Ambedkar with a suggestion that if one had called the name of God with the same energy, one would attain heaven for seven births. Once again , the speech tries to hollow out political struggles of Ambedkarites and recent struggles for the safety of our constitution as worth nothing when compared to religious ritual of calling the name of God. This ridiculing and dismissal of the struggles for Ambedkarites for upholding the constitution also displays the scorn that BJP-RSS-VHP combine has offered to our constitution in the past.
Some suggest that the deeply insulting words were not intended by the HM. As unintended, they seemedd to be one that have come out of his unconscious through the play of what Sigmund Freud called slip of tongue. If this is so the slip of tongue has betrayed the honorable H M and has mirrored his deep-seated hatred of Ambedkar. He said boldly without being fully in control of his words and thus, brought to light that which he otherwise would like to be kept under the cover of darkness. His speech taken as slip of tongue then enters an auto-revelatory mode that underlines its insulting message which we can decode from his words with or without treating them as slip of tongue. Hence, whether the slippery speech is made by a slip of tongue or by conscious choice, it does the same damage. This is why those that called it an insult to Dr. B R Ambedkar are fully right and have shown that doing Ambedkarite Politics is indeed rattling the ruling BJP. The notorious speech shows that the way ahead to the opposition is to take Ambedkar and the constitution seriously . It has the power to unnerve the BJP as well as bring to the public its apparent disloyalty to the constitution. The fashion of doing Ambedkar can put BJP out of fashion.
The speech is indeed performative. It produced effects that it did not imagined. It appears to have boomeranged on the ruling BJP. We can find that people all over the country have begun to feel the insult inflicted of Dr. B R Ambedkar and are agitating against the H M burning his effigies and calling his resignation. If this agitation gathers momentum, it seems to have the power that can bring about the fall of the reigning Modi Government. Already tremors are being felt within the NDA. Doing Ambedkar is even more dangerous. It can do what Mhatma Gandhi feared the most and made Dr. B R Ambedkar sign the Pune Accord using the manipulative power of his fast unto death. Indeed, it can dismantle the power that Saverna castes have over Indian polity. This will truly become fatal to BJP and RSS. Doing Ambedkar is good for our democracy. It is best for India. The opposition seems to have chosen the best politics and no one can take it way from them.
