I remember it was 6th Dec 2008. Crowds and crowds of people were moving towards Chaityabhoomi on Dadar Chowpatty.Now for people who do not know what the significance of 6th December is and do not have any iota of an idea of what Chaityabhoomi is, let us start from the basics.
6th December is the Mahaparinirvan Divas of Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar, the great Indian leader who fought all his life for the rights of the lower caste people. For some people, who do not even take the effort of thinking with their heads, he is the person responsible for the reservations and why their kids cannot get admission because they are in OPEN category. For the lower castes, he is, put in a single apt word, GOD. For people like me, he was a visionary and a great scholar, a lover of books, the architect of our constitution and of course a great leader!
Chaityabhoomi, on the other hand, you could say is the Samadhi of Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar. Babasaheb had embraced buddhism towards the end of his life and like the Stupa in Sanchi, Chaityabhoomi stands at Dadar Chowpatty. People, especially his followers, visit Chaityabhoomi & pay their respects to Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar.
So, on 6th December every year, our Dalit Bandhus, as our politicians love to put it, come from all over the nation and visit Chaityabhoomi. And as always, our great Netas, put up posters and hoardings with Dr. Ambedkar’s photo and one of his quotes, and even bigger pictures of themselves on it.
On 6th December 2008, I was walking down Swatantryaveer Sawarkar Road and I saw a poster which instantly caught my attention. Roughly A3 in size it had a quote of Dr. Ambedkar written on it.I do not remember which political party had put up the poster but the quote is still fresh in my mind. It was addressed to the lower castes & goes like this,
“ I want to see one of YOU become the PRIME MINISTER of India”
Little did Babasaheb know how the genius Netas of our nation would interpret the statement and use it for their benefit.What he actually meant was different and what the maker of that poster wanted to convey was completely different!
Babasaheb Ambedkar simply wanted to tell the downtrodden people to progress! He wanted them to learn. He wanted them to have education. He wanted they not only be literate but they be capable of understanding things said by Netas and be able to take the right decisions! He wanted them to be educated in the real sense of the term. When he said he wanted to see one of the lower caste people become the Prime Minister of the nation, he actually meant that they should educated themselves, enter the system, change it for the better of both the people and the nation! He wanted them to elevate their castes to such a great height that there would be no divide between people based on castes! And when such educated persons enter the system and do good for the country then he deserves to be the PM. When such a time dawns, it won’t matter if the person is an OBC, NT,ST,VJ, Brahmin etc.
What Babasaheb Ambedkar meant when he quoted the above line and what our great politicians, or Dalit Netas as they call themselves, convey to the masses is completely different!
They will use this statement by Dr. Ambedkar and his Demi God status in the lower castes and based on that will try to achieve political mileage.
They will say, “ Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar wanted that a Dalit become the Prime Minister of India. We are Dalit leaders and we will work for the benefit of Dalits. So, give us your valuable votes and bring us to power so that we can make a dalit the PM of the nation and complete his life dream!”
What they actually mean is, “ Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar wanted to uplift the Dalits to such a level, that each one of you would be capable of leading the country as the PM. However,we are neither interested in your benefit nor in achieving the dreams of Dr. Ambedkar. All we are interested in is coming to Power. All we want is avenues to earn money so that our 7 generations to come can feast using that money. We know, you people are not educated enough because we have deliberately kept you like that and hence we will show that we are extremely concerned and will dedicate our lives to uplift you. However, we will not uplift you but keep you oppressed and away from the opportunities that are actually your fundamental rights. But then to ensure that you vote for us we will continue to offer you reservations. We will make you so used to reservations that we will make you feel that they are your fundamental rights. By doing this we will maintain a division between various castes so that the nation is never united and our vote banks are secure!”
To achieve their own selfish motives, these worthless, lowly creatures who dare call themselves “leaders” of a huge chunk of the Indian population, have destroyed what Dr. Ambedkar wanted to tell his followers and after his death have taken the Dalit population for a ride and unfortunately, they continue to do so.
Bastards.
Regards,
Pranjal A. Wagh
This work by Pranjal A. Wagh is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 India License
21 comments
What about people (sometimes even friends) not belonging to non-creamy layer class, but use reservations to grab open sits?
Can upliftment of one class of society be justified at the cost of so-called progressed ones? isn’t it unfair to them?
@Darshan
Reservations are meant for upliftment of a deprived section of the society. When they were introduced in India circa 1947, they were supposed to last for maximum 20 year i guess. However, after the death of Dr. Ambedkar, the politicians cleverly manipulated this reservation system to secure their vote banks and kept extending the reservations every time the extension period expired.
However, as is with every system, Reservations also have their own loopholes and the one you mentioned is one of them. The people who do this think only about their benefit and not about the nation. If we want the country to progress, each one of us must put the country before self, always and everytime!
There are some exceptions too, some people inspite of being from backward classes and non-creamy layer class, do not opt for reservations and progress on their own!
तुझा मुद्दाच मला कळला नाही ???
Well said. I totally agree with the point that, politicians are using the great leader and their messages in a distorted way, to fill the ballot boxes with a finger-print ahead of their Election Chinh. Reservations should be there, but only for the deserving candidates based on Economic Conditions, Family Back-ground and not because he was born as a Backward class. I have few of my friends (so called backward class), who apply through OPEN seats only, because they feel that they were equally exposed to the outside world.. If the younger generation believes this attitude, we shall surely be a country where each one of us will be capable of leading the nation. JAI HIND.
@Aniket
My point was how the politicians manipulate the quotes n teachings of our great leaders and use it for their own benefit.
@ Krishnakant
Hats off to your friends! and well said!!
What a read! this is the harsh reality of the politicians. hope all people could see through it rather than getting carried away and act accordingly. Now even I know what Dr. Ambedkar meant. Never bothered about knowing the truth. Thanks for enlightening me! Kudos to Pranjal saheb…Cheers!
am so glad you wrote this, people generally tend to pan dr. ambedkar and forget his contributions to our country.
Very well written and true.. Most of the things are not done with a bad intent, but that is the way it is shown to the common janta…
I am happy that the result of Babri masjid was taken sportingly by the whole of India and even though politicians tried to ‘bhadkao’ them..all they wanted was peace..
very rightly said..BASTARDS…
Wagh ki Aag!!!
Nice that you chose to write on a topic like this and it is very well written……
Words like ‘great’ are used now-a-days for things that are barely average, but Babasaheb Ambedkar was one of those people for whom no compliment can be good enough….truly a wonderful leader and human being…
It is difficult to stop those in power from manipulating things to suit their needs, it has been happening for ages……..
There have been numerous instances of politicians promising something, not delivering on their promise, and still being voted back to power….what many parties do is that they keep an ‘influential section’ of the ‘vote bank’ happy and use these people to control the others who are exploited and kept backward so that they can continue to be exploited…but I always wonder how people can be so gullible and easily manipulated
For a serious change to come about there has to be a change at all levels – political, educational , social and economic….we have to, in essence, change the way we think and the way we go about doing things
Nice Post Brinjal,
The issue of reservation has crippled the education system of this country & no political party is ready to protest against it due to the fear of losing its vote bank. In the end, we are left with a situation where the truly exceptional people are unfortunate not to get Quality education & some not so deserving people getting the Seat as they were fortunate enough to be born to a lower caste family.
Lets hope that we will awaken to a brighter generation of youth who would want to take concrete steps in abolishing this “Reservation System”
just few words “Awesome stuff u got with u buddy! :)”
you’ve highlighted the minutest details, and i bet u should put up the stuff on ur blogsite on some Newspaper like ToI,HT, DNA, etc
Dude, dont u think people who are from “the backward class” and applying through OPEN seats are actually eating up your seats for admission.. While one extra person from “the backward class” gets in through the quota and a deserving candidate losses a seat just because a person from the backward class entered through OPEN category.. Think about it…
@Shreyas & Sharan
Thanks a lot for your valuable comments & thoughts!
@Vinay
Even if reservations are meant for backward classes, they cannot be prevented from entering through the Open category because there are no reservations for the Open Category…and I believe there should not be. These are loopholes in the system which we Indians are masters at exploiting.
Infact, the time for reservations on the basis of caste, religion is past. However, our public is so stupid and foolish that they fall prey to the rantings and ravings of Politicians every five years…Its like ‘Ghajini’ …our people forget everything that these Netas have done to them and their lives and still bring them back to power.
Reservations, if any, should be on the basis of economic class. However, in our country people will exploit the loopholes in that policy too.
So I think reservations should not be there in India. And this will happen over a period of time. It is not so easy nowadays to just carry on with the reservations 🙂
Hey Vinay,
I am one of them & proud to be so 🙂
First of all Pranjal, thanx for enlightening me on this topic . Secondly what we see now a days is something which we equally are a part of. Today people generally feel pround in saying ” rules kyu banate hai todne ke liye” & laugh their A** out on the statement.People sitting at home watching politicians speak thrash say to their family members ” kya sab chor hai saale” & change their channel to watch Big Boss. We say tat as an indiviual we should see to it that we do our things properly in d right way as a result agar ek ek aadmi aona kaam right way se kare toh desh sudhrega…But sorry boss nahi sudhrega..Am not pessimistic but realistic..
We write we forget
we revolt we forget
we comment we forget
WE VOTE WE FORGET….
All say India is developing @ leaps & bounds..yes it is…but its becoming khokla from inside….& i dnt want a developed khokhla India rather than i wud be happy with a clean still developing India…wat say guys…!!
Everyybody
after reading my full name, many of u will come to knw that i belong to reservation class.But i m dat unlucky one who had to go thru general quota becoz of some layers(creamy!knw idea why they call it dat or whtever)Chalo ne wyz kudos to pranjal 4 this blog. good one.Awesome,brillant etc……Many of u might think why i m praising him soo much.Dats becoz pranjal is paying me 100 rs per word for da appraisal.HHAHAAAAAAAAAA.Chalo ending my comment with”Hamara neta kaisa hoo ,Pranjal Wagh jaisa hooooooooo” .Praying from the bottom of my heart dat one day u become PM so dat ur frnds like me can do Multi millions scam under ur rule.AAkhir why r frnds for???????Enough of the crap.seriously man,out standing pice.So pranjal,u owe me 600 bucks for this.Paise lene kab aaouuuuu
Rightly said pranjal…..
because of few political bastards, open category ppl blame Babasaheb for the Reservation issue.
How can we forget his contribution to India?
I believe, Reservation shud be der, but on economical grounds n not on caste system…
there are many open category ppl who cant afford main stream education, n der r some reserved category ppl earning heavily still getting benefits, this is not good for developing country like us.
I remember, till 9th standard I never heard terms like OBC, ST, SC etc. but when u pass ur SSC n one of our friends get adm in a better college due to his caste, that time u got to know bout all these issues.
Actually Education system should be meant for Eradication of such caste systems, but our Education system is da one which is starting it all over again.
If v eradicate this caste system from education now, I can promise that hardly anyone will talk abou their caste in 2030… Every one will be Indian only
Lets pray for the best yar
Nicely put dude. The moment i read the date i figured this would be centered around the nuisance faced by the residents . Not to mention the utter filth that piles up . But it was a pleasant surprise that you spoke about something which is quite relevant. Everyone has made their views known about reservations. Mine are not too different. All i can say is Keep up the good work mate 🙂
@Aniket
Thanks for noting the difference, my friend! I have never thought the followers of Dr. Ambedkar to be a nuisance. Some people are a nuisance, but then they are not a nuisance just because they follow Dr. Ambedkar-its because they are generally a nuisance..whoever they might follow!
Yes, filth does pile up. But then when people come in such a large number and when sanitation facilities are so less in number..its going to stink!
@ Kunal
All our lives in schools we are taught abt the equality of religion and caste and the moment we step out of schools we find out that reality is very different.
I remember, we had to fill one form once in school which had fields like caste, sub-caste, religion. I once filled Indian in there…got a nice slap for that!
Even now I am not aware and neither do I care about the caste of the person who is my friend or enemy.
I believe in humans. Let us hope the world does too!
Reservation at that point of time was justified but today even after more than 60 years of independence we need to do a re-think over it.
The real point to ponder over is
1.Have we achieved the objective with which the policy of Reservation was bought?
2. If not, do we have any idea when it will be achieved?
If answers for both the questions are ‘NO’, then it surely does not make any sense to continue the policy of reservation. Reservation is more of a tool used by ruling party to play votebank politics instead of being a lever for the upliftment of poor but deserving. Even Babasaheb Ambedkar would have been shocked to see how the policy of reservation is widely manipulated and misused. And the more ugly side of this system is that you can get these SC/ST/OBC certificates made if you can increase the bank balance of ‘babus’ in a wrong way.
Nicely written 🙂