'The prime minister does not even knows that Ambedkar's wife
exists'
In a glaring omission, the list of VIPs (very important persons)
invited to India's 50th Independence Anniversary celebrations
failed to include Savita Ambedkar, widow of the man widely credited
with the drafting of the Constitution.
''Nobody cared to invite me for the special midnight session. I
came to Delhi on my own because of my patriotic feelings for this
country. This is no way to treat the wife of a founder of the
nation like Babasaheb Ambedkar,'' Dr Savita Ambedkar said.
Interviewed on Wednesday at the Delhi hotel where she had to make her own
arrangements, assisted only by her secretary Suhas Sonawane,
Dr Ambedkar's widow said her treatment reflected the official attitude
of the dalits. ''This is why 11 dalits were shot dead like
flies in Ghatkopar while protesting against the desecration of
Babasaheb's statue.''
Ignored by officialdom, the octogenarian found herself shuttling
about the capital in autorickshaws to get to venues like the Red
Fort on August 15. ''We reached the Red Fort only after the function
was well underway as the private taxi we had hired was directed
hither and thither by policemen who failed to recognise me.''
The human resource development ministry, one of the
organisers of the golden jubilee celebrations, then declined to
reimburse her air fare from Bombay and passed the buck on to the Lok
Sabha speaker who was admitted to hospital earlier this week.
Finally, Union Welfare Minister Balwant Singh Ramoowalia
intervened and sanctioned her air fare and an official
vehicle. Says Dr Savita Ambedkar, ''He is a nice man and went out of his way
to help me.''
Her efforts to meet the prime minister also
proved trying because the prime minister's office placed her
request on low priority. With no response from the PMO even after
extending her stay in Delhi by two days, she booked a ticket
to Bombay on Tuesday night.
However, an hour before she was to leave for the airport, a call
came through from the PMO saying that an appointment had been fixed
for late Tuesday evening, forcing her to cancel her flight.
''The prime minister does not even knows that Ambedkar's wife
exists,'' Dr Savita Ambedkar said, adding that few people would have known of
her presence in the capital except for newspaper photographs showing
her posing with President K R Narayanan.
''He is one of us and I am glad that a dalit has made it to the
nation's highest post on his own merit in the 50th year of India's
Independence,'' he said.
However, she said she was disappointed with the general lot of
the dalits and felt that the country has failed to secure social
justice. ''Atrocities against dalits have only grown in the last
50 years and the Ghatkopar incidents indicate this trend. The
government will pay a heavy price if it fails to take such incidents
seriously,'' she added.
Dr Savita also referred to Arun Shourie's controversial book on
Ambedkar, Worshipping False Gods, as an indication of the new
right-wing trend to belittle Dr Ambedkar's contribution to the
framing of the Constitution.
"Why this whispering campaign against Dr Ambedkar? If somebody
else has made a greater contribution to the shaping of the
Constitution, let them come forward and make a claim -- this is an attempt to sabotage the Constitution itself,'' she said.
Asked what she thought of the Bharatiya Janata Party and Bahujan Samaj Party ruling alliance in Uttar
Pradesh, she dismissed it as ''totally opportunistic'' and "one
which would harm rather than help dalit interests. ''These people
have not understood the BJP game.''
UNI
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