Shame and hypocrisy

What really nauseated me about the shenanigans in Parliament last week was the hypocrisy.

- Tavleen Singh

Manifest in the attempt by everyone on all sides of the political divide to exhibit their love for Dr Ambedkar in silly ways. There was Rahul Gandhi in a blue t-shirt (instead of his usual white) with his sister in a blue sari and sundry other Congress MPs also wearing Dalit blue, a colour chosen because of the sky under which everyone is equal. They cried "Jai, Jai Bhim" and carried placards declaring "I am Ambedkar" and Ambedkar is my god. From a party with which Ambedkar had serious differences.

It was not just Congress party's hypocrisy on display. But BJP's hypocrisy as well. In the Home Minister's speech in which he allegedly 'insulted' Dr Ambedkar, he listed the memorials and sundry other things done in his memory since Narendra Modi became prime minister. And BJP speakers in the debate on the Constitution never failed to mention that Ambedkar had been denied a Bharat Ratna by prime ministers from the Dynasty. What these newly minted members of Baba Saheb Ambedkar's fan club failed to mention was that the ideology to which they subscribe, the Hindutva that defines the Modi government, is the antithesis of what Ambedkar believed.