Now, Congress plans Ambedkar birthday bash to woo Dalits
New Delhi:Desperate to regain its traditional Scheduled Caste vote bank across the country, the Congress has decided to hold year-long celebrations to mark the 125th birth anniversary of Dalit icon Dr. B.R. Ambedkar starting April 14.
Sources said Congress chief Sonia Gandhi will launch the campaign at Mhow, the birth place of Baba Saheb Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, in Madhya Pradesh’s Indore district, likely on April 14, his birthday.
If Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, on leave for over a month, returns by that date, he may also accompany Sonia, said the sources.
Declining Dalit vote base
Though there have been concerns in the party over the gradual decline in its Dalit support base, the wake-up call came during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections and subsequent Assembly polls in Maharashtra, Haryana and Delhi, where the Congress failed to attract the Scheduled Caste votes.
In politically-crucial Uttar Pradesh, the absence of an influential Dalit leader after Jagjivan Ram and the emergence of the BSP in the past decades, saw a severe dent in the traditional Congress support base. The story in Punjab, which has the highest concentration of Dalit voters, is no different.
The party had made key political appointments like making party MP Meira Kumar the Lok Sabha Speaker in 2009, making party MP Sushil Kumar Shinde as home minister in 2012 and appointing MP Mallikarjuna Kharge as leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha in 2014 keeping in mind the Dalit community.
Knowing how vital it is to regain the traditional Dalit vote, the Grand Old Party has formed a panel to celebrate Ambedkar’s birth anniversary. While former home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde will be the vice chairperson of the panel, K. Raju, who heads the AICC’s Scheduled Caste department, will be its member convener.
The grand launch of celebrations by Sonia will be followed up by a national-level Congress meet in Mumbai to discuss various rights and entitlements guaranteed through various programmes and legislations brought out by the successive Congress governments.
The party also plans to organise seminars and conventions to disseminate Ambedkar’s ideology besides essays and debate competitions in schools to sensitise the younger generation on his contributions.
The party will also institute a national-level award for an individual or institution which has made significant contribution to social transformation and to bring equality in society.
Source: India to Day
