CPI leader D Raja on Ambedkar Jayanti: Learning from Babasaheb in the age of polarisation

D Raja writes: Ambedkar warned that politics in India is theology in action. His cure was progressive secularisation of the polity and society

As we commemorate yet another birth anniversary of Babasaheb Ambedkar on April 14, the dark reality is that his universal vision centred on the idea of justice is under attack from the present government. A cursory scan of the public sphere reveals how the promise of equal citizenship embodied in the Constitution is diluted or denied by the state apparatus every day. Ambedkar once proclaimed in the Constituent Assembly that Parliament belongs to the Opposition. During the just concluded Budget session, the BJP MPs disrupted proceedings in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha in a planned manner. This was done with the singular aim of denying opposition parties the democratic space to raise the alleged nexus of the Adani group of companies with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The washout of the Budget session is an episode unheard of in the history of our Parliament.