Baba Saheb Dr. After Bhimrao Ambedkar, Kanshi Ram (who is also known as ‘Saheb’ and ‘Manyavar’ by his supporters and admirers) said goodbye to this world on October 9, 2006 after a long illness, and was continuously active in the Dalit movement. Despite the increasing distractions and disintegration, hardly anyone could have imagined that even two decades would not be completed after this goodbye and their fight for Dalit self-respect would turn 360 degrees on its axis – so much so that the Bahujans would be deprived of all the opportunities available in the politics of that time. The ‘principle’ of Paltimar politics which he had given for use in the interest of the people, will also become ‘something of great use to the Manuwadis’.
Not only this, their mission of ‘Bahujan’, which has transformed into ‘Sarvajan’ for power, will reach a point where they will reach the point where they will get hold of the state power while hearing slogans like ‘Haathi is not Ganesh, Brahma, Vishnu is Mahesh’. Instead of trying to keep it with himself, he would not be ashamed to be seen happily handing it over to the same ‘Manuwadis’ whose determination to overthrow the monarchy was not acceptable to him even in the days of counter-insurgency politics.
It is important to know here that for him the key to state power was an absolutely indispensable means of opening the closed locks of socio-economic changes beneficial to the Bahujans and he believed that the Bahujans could get an upper hand in the social and political systems of the country only when this key was in their possession. Stay close. Otherwise, they will have to keep dancing on the axis of whoever has this key in their hands or control.
It is noteworthy that under this belief, he had rejected the offer of becoming the President given to him by Atal Bihari Vajpayee during his Prime Ministership, saying that he wanted to become the Prime Minister and not the President because the real power of the country lies in this post – Bahujans. Also the key to open the lock hanging on the closed door of the future.
Despite all this, it would be wrong to say that the distractions and disintegration of the Dalit movement have made their fight futile or have diminished its importance. By counting some of the mistakes and omissions committed during the fight, he cannot be held solely responsible for the reasons due to which as soon as he fell ill, a series of allegations and counter-allegations started among his disciple Mayawati and her family.
Not only this, the country’s first Dalit woman Chief Minister, who was elected in 1995, soon lost her identity by allegedly turning into a ‘daughter of wealth’. As a result, not only did their good earnings reach the point of being ‘sold’, but the slogan ‘UP is ours, now it’s Delhi’s turn’ also reduced to ‘Neither Delhi, nor UP’ and ‘Neither in three, nor in thirteen’. As it happened.
However, by the time Kanshiram turned twenty-one, he had started his struggle and it was clear in his heart and mind from the beginning what he had to do next. Born on this day in 1934, on March 15, in a Dalit community named Ramdasia, in a village called Khawaspur in Ropar district of Punjab, he had completed his B.Sc. by 1957 and joined the Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO), Pune, Maharashtra. ) had become an assistant scientist in the Explosive Lab.
When the management of this lab suddenly canceled the holidays on the birth anniversary of Baba Saheb Ambedkar and Gautam Buddha, he termed it as insulting to the Dalits and started a struggle for their reinstatement. Then his life started going through a long series of such struggles and he had to take a pledge that he would neither marry nor own any property and would dedicate his entire life to achieving the goals of the Phule-Ambedkar movement.
Due to this pledge, he left his six-year old job in DRDO in one fell swoop and moved towards becoming the ‘commander’ of the fight for Dalit self-respect. After this he never looked back. He worked in the Republican Party of India for seven-eight years, but in 1978, when he became disillusioned with its policies, he formed the Backward Minorities Communities Employees Federation (BAMCEF) and started spreading it across the country. For this he made long journeys on bicycle. In 1981, he also formed Dalit Shoshit Samaj Sangharsh Samiti i.e. DS-4.
The very next year in 1982, he wrote a book titled ‘The Chamcha Age’ and strongly condemned those Dalit leaders who, let alone Bahujans, did not even work for the socio-economic upliftment and protection of self-respect of their Dalit community and Congress. Kept working with such parties on their terms for personal gain. This book made his political line and tendencies clear to a great extent. Yes, his attitude towards Congress also.
Ultimately coming to the conclusion that the Dalit movement could not flourish without a political base, he formed the Bahujan Samaj Party on April 14, 1984. According to experts, he took the word ‘Bahujan’ from Pali language and his concept of Bahujan included minorities along with Dalits and backward people.
The past is witness to the fact that as long as they could remain politically active, the slogans and morals of this party were completely different from those of other parties. Didn’t even refrain from making them their opposites in many ways. He often used to say that the first election is fought to lose, the second to defeat someone and the third to win.
In the historic by-election of Allahabad Lok Sabha seat in 1988, he lost to Vishwanath Pratap Singh by 70,000 votes, while in the 1989 Lok Sabha elections, when he became a candidate from East Delhi seat, he came fourth. But after this, he contested Lok Sabha elections for the third time from Etawah seat in 1991 and was successful in repeating his victory from Hoshiarpur seat of Punjab in 1996.
When the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh Parivar made Ayodhya their laboratory in the latter half of the ninth decade of the last century, they moved ahead and made the country’s most populous state Uttar Pradesh their political laboratory. Their organizations like BAMCEF and DS-4 were already running aggressive ground campaigns there against Manuwadis and upper castes. At that time, his workers not only had very aggressive slogans like ‘Tilak Taraju aur Talwar…’ and ‘Babhan, Thakur, Baniya Chhod…’, they also had vulgar slogans like ‘Vote our rule is yours, it will not work, it will not work’. . Aspirational slogans like ‘Will take CM-PM by voting, SP will take DM by reservation’ and ‘Whoever talks about Bahujan will rule the country’.
Naturally at that time BSP seemed ready to turn everything upside down – it wanted to change the system. His leadership and organizational abilities made him a renowned spokesperson for the self-respect of Dalits.
In the difficult circumstances after the demolition of Babri Masjid in Ayodhya on December 6, 1992, he formed an alliance with Mulayam Singh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh (it is also claimed that Mulayam formed this party only on his request) and When he contested the state assembly elections, the results had left the sky ablaze with the slogan of ‘Mile Mulayam Kanshi Ram, Hawa Ho Gaye Jai Shri Ram’.
But due to some contradictions, the life of this alliance could not be long and soon BSP started making mistakes with BJP. Then Kanshiram gave a new political philosophy. That they will not hesitate to use any available means to hand over the keys of power to the Bahujans. Not even by turning again and again. However, as has been said earlier, later on, these revolutions started being motivated less by ensuring the upliftment of the Bahujans by following the path of system change and more by sharing the benefits of power.
Due to this, Kanshi Ram came to be considered in many circles as the second biggest inspiration for Dalit politics and movements after Baba Saheb, then while explaining the difference between himself and Baba Saheb, he used to say that Baba Saheb used to collect books but I collect people. . This work of gathering people over a long period of time made him respected and respected by his followers during the period of Mandal and Kamandal.
He had announced that on October 14, 2006, on the occasion of completion of fifty years of Babasaheb’s initiation into Buddhism, he would follow his path and convert to Buddhism. That means, even if you are born like them as a Hindu, you will not leave the world as a Hindu. But even before this date, the threat of death did not allow his wish to be fulfilled. Thus, he used to call himself a member of the Ajivaka sect, which was once founded by Makkhali Gosala (Goshalak) and whose philosophy was the most influential philosophy prevalent in India before the rise of the 24th Tirthankara Mahavira and Mahatma Buddha in the fifth century BC.
At present, his birth anniversary is celebrated as ‘Bahujan Inspiration Day’, but losing sight of the fact that the greatest tribute to him can be paid by reviving his struggles for the Dalits-Bahujans in all their moral glory. Can only be given. This is why the matter has now reached the level of their attempts to fraudulently convert ’85 vs 15′ into ’80 vs 20′.
Courtesy: Hindi News
