The ideology of the Sangh parivar is a bundle of thoughts that are so
elastic that they can fit into all circumstances. The common thread
in this intellectual opportunism is that its protagonists are totally
bereft of any moral bindings.

Vinay Katiyar, the BJP's Uttar Pradesh chief and Barjrang Dal
stormtrooper, said while unleashing his Moditva type of campaign from
Varanasi this week that Dr B.R. Ambedkar was against the Muslims. He
also said that the ideas of Ambedkar were akin to those of Keshav
Hedgewar, the RSS ideologue for whom Adolf Hiter was the role model.

In the past, the BJP and its hydra-headed fronts have never dared to
coopt Ambedkar's ideology. They have mustered the courage to do so
now only because they have entered into a shaky alliance with the
BSP. Katiyar is of the opinion that his party would continue the
caravan, where they left it in the hate-filled fields of Gujarat.
It's visible. He has crossed all limits when it comes to transparent
lies, slander, conspiracy and shame.

The BJP, under his leadership, has started a campaign against the
Muslims citing so called cultural nationalism. Ambedkar was never
against the Muslims; instead, he was emphatically against
'Manuvaditva' and what goes by the current xenophobia of Moditva.

Katiyar is correct in saying that Ambedkar was never in favour of the
Partition of India. Ambedkar wrote in the book, Thought on Pakistan,
that he was against Partition and even if it took place, Muslims and
Hindus should go to their respective countries because of the fact
that if Muslims stayed back, they would be treated like the fifth
varna or devils (mleksh) by the upper caste Hindu caste society. He
believed that the Muslims would have no future in a Brahmanical
social order.

This is exactly what is happening in contemporary India. Ambedkar
never said that Muslims were terrorists and they should be deprived
of their voting rights. This is a lie manufactured by Katiyar, who
has claimed from the figment of his warped imagination that Ambedkar
wanted the liberation of Ayodhya, Kashi and Mathura. Next they will
claim that Babasaheb wanted a Hindu Rashtra.

Ambedkar held the view - as per the Constitution - that on all such
questions, status quo should be maintained, as of 1947, at all costs.

Indian Muslims have been time and again asked to prove their loyalty
to the nation by these sectarian anti-socials, despite the fact they
not only rejected Pakistan, but have been as patriotic as you or me.
Not one Muslim from India crossed over to Afghanistan to fight with
the Taliban.

Sociologists have time and again proved that the majority of Indian
Muslims are different in content and character; their Indianness in a
secular democracy makes them different from Muslims in other Islamic
theocraicies. They too have fundamentalists in their midst, but the
majority is deeply syncretic, patriotic, multicultural, plural and
secular, with deep faith in India and its future.

Let's not fudge the truth. Indian Muslims are as patriotic as you and
me. They have fought for the country's freedom, sacrificed their sons
in the wars, worked for the progress of the nation in every field -
from business and politics, to arts, academics and sports. Why should
the 150 million Muslims of India prove their patriotism to the likes
of Katiyar, an extremist rabble rouser?

Katiyar's ancestors in his party did not even fight in the freedom
movement; instead, they allied with the British, as the documented
pleadings of Savarkar to the British clearly proves. Besides, they
don't believe in equality, modernity or progress. All they believe in
is communal carnages and hate campaigns, to score electoral
victories. And the action-replay of lies and falsities.

Why is Katiyar silent about Ambedkar's categorical statement that
Hinduism was not a religion but a conspiracy to subjugate the
oppressed and dalits? Is he not aware that Ambedkar burnt the Manu
Smiriti, the Sangh parivar's holy book? Didn't Ambedkar reject
Brahminical oppression and adopt Buddhism with lakhs of Dalits?

Indian Muslims have always stood with Ambedkar. When the Congress
pitted a Dalit against him, the Muslim League helped him by asking
Jogender Nath Mandal to resign from Nowakholi in his favour. Ambedkar
was given the opportunity to get elected. Ambedkar, in his famous
Mission, wrote that the upper castes (Brahmans, Kshatriyas and
Vaishyas), were basically outsiders. He said that the untouchables,
including the minorities, were the original inhabitants of this
country. He vowed to hand over power to these 'aborigines'. This was
his dream - of a new, egalitarian, secular India.

Ambedkar fought an incessant battle against the ideas which are now
being propogated by the Hindutva parivar. When he finally realised
that the Brahmanical social order was not going to change or improve,
he quit Hinduism along with lacks of people in 1956 and adopted
Buddhism.

Look at the parallel. When thousands of Dalits wanted to adopt
Buddhism in Delhi on November 24 last year, who tried to
unsuccessfully block, crush and smash their spirit - the VHP,
patronised by the Vajpayee-Advani regime.

The BJP has dared to malign Babasaheb Ambedkar because Mayawati is
its new comrade; she campagned for it in Gujarat, despite the
genocide. The Sangh has taken for granted her and the fact that she
will allow Ambedkar to be used against the Muslims to stick to power.
This is a dangerous game because the BJP knows that the BSP is built
on the edifice of Ambedkar's philosophy. This will create serious
conflict.

All progressive, liberal, tolerant, peaceful Indians, including
Dalits and Muslims, must teach a lesson to the BSP and Mayawati for
this dangerous sellout. The BJP's final gameplan is to pitch Dalits
versus Muslims in a bloody battle. But in UP, the Gujarat card will
fail. This is because the Dalits and Muslims will not fall for
Moditva's bloodbath.

Lord Gautam Buddha was repulsed by the prevailing socio-political
order of his time. He renounced his family and material life and
vowed to eradicate the philosophy of the Brahmanical social order.
Similarly, Babasaheb Ambedkar, with his relentless efforts - leading
mass agitations for entry of Dalits into temples and sharing the
waters of public ponds, etc - liberated the Dalits from the mental
slavery of Hindutva. He wanted to get dignity for the oppressed, but
he was opposed tooth and nail by the Manuwadis, like the Katiyars,
Togadias and Giriraj Kishores of contemporary India.

Ambedkar had to suffer discrimination despite his high qualification,
stature and ability. He was thrown out of his rented house. He was
employed in the state of Shivaji Gaekwad, but his peon used to fling
files on his table from a 'safe' distance - why? So that there is no
physical, polluting contact with an 'untouchable'.

Had a personality like Dr B.R. Ambedkar been alive in these dark
times of of Manuwadi rule in India, in all probability he would have
been killed. We have a large number of examples from our subaltern
history: Sant Ravidas, Brihdrath, Charwak, several Buddhist monks and
unrecorded reformers and rebels - they were all eliminated. Their
only crime was that they stood against Manuwad, perhaps the most
intolerant philosophy in the world, as expressed in the words and
deeds of Narendra Modi and his vangaurd.

Katiyar has tried to equate Ambedkar with Hegdewar. Can anything be
more shameful than this? Mayawati is party to this crime. Her
followers should ask her: who has created the ground for the BJP to
murder the philosophy of Babasaheb Ambedkar? It is she, who, despite
the Gujarat genocide, and despite her election promise not to go with
the BJP, allied with the BJP for power.

Now she will have to pay the price for the desecration of Babasaheb's
memory by her Hindutva comrades.

(The writer is Chairman, All India Confederation of SC/ST Organizations)