Dr. Baba Saheb Bhimrao Ambedkar
The political storm surrounding Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s statement in Parliament over the past two days shows no sign of letting up. Excerpts from Amit Shah’s lengthy speech during the constitutional discussions created so much controversy that even the parliamentary session had to be suspended. While the opposition termed the statement as an insult to the framer of the constitution Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar, Amit Shah said his statement had been distorted.
Amid the controversy, a 70-year-old interview was also hotly debated. Dr Ambedkar was interviewed by the BBC in 1953. In this interview, he offers a clear and candid view of India’s democracy and electoral process.
‘Democracy doesn’t work in India’
The first question Ambedkar asked was whether democracy would work in India? In this regard, Ambedkar once said that democracy would not work in India because the social system here did not conform to the model of parliamentary democracy. People are more concerned with meeting their basic needs than with elections. Ambedkar gave the example of American democracy. Saying that American democracy is very successful, I don’t think communism will emerge because per capita income is very high. This cannot happen in India because people don’t have enough land, rainfall here is less, and trees are cut down on a large scale.
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“The election is not important, but…”
He was then asked if there was a need for an election? Ambedkar denied this and said elections did not matter if they did not elect good people. His argument is that no one has yet understood that voting means a change of government, and that our electoral system never allows for a choice of candidates.
Ambedkar gave an example in the interview, Congress has called for a vote on the symbol of the bull, but do ordinary people think the bull represents them? No one cares who the candidate is behind the bull election symbol. People will only vote on election symbols. People wonder if the cow, the election symbol, represents a donkey or an educated person?
“This system is based on inequality”
When Ambed was asked if he could say that the current system is based on inequality? Ambedkar agreed. He said there was no way to fix the caste system unless it was abolished. However, he also said that social systems will not be changed that easily. He acknowledged that changing the system peacefully would take a long time. But shouldn’t you give it a try?
Ambedkar also gave a plan for this. When it comes to changing the system, there should be some specific plans and some organizations or institutions to fix the social system. He was asked what alternative arrangements could be made to do this? Ambedkar said that the communist system could be an alternative. This will lead to improvements.
‘The current system will collapse’
Ambedkar said the existing system will definitely break down. I think about my people and they are so eager and excited. And these people belong to the lowest level of society. When a building’s foundation collapses, the ground floor collapses first.
