Dear all,

JaiBhim!

Today is the 44th Mahaparinirvana Day of Babasaheb Dr.Ambedkar. This day is commemorated by millions of his followers as "Day of Dedication". The day goes with rcollecting the memories of the lifelong struggle of Babasaheb against the tyranny of the Hindu caste system. At the same time it is also the time to look at the unfullfilled mission of Babasaheb. Here are few statements of Babasaheb:

The Last message to his people:

"Whatever I have done, I have been able to do after passing through crushing miseries and endless struggle all my life and fighting with my opponents. With great difficulty I have brought this caravan where it is seen today. Let the caravan march on despite the hurdles that may come in its way. If my lieutenants are not able to take the caravan ahead they should leave it there, but in no circumstances should they allow the caravan to go back. This is the message to my people"

It is worthwhile reviewing whether the caravan which Babasaheb had referred to has moved forward or backward in the last 44 years.

Here is another statement which encourages the activists of our mission:

"Noble is your aim and sublime and glorious is your mission. Blessed are those who are awakened to their duty to those among whom they are born. Glory to those who devote their time, talents and their all to the amelioration of slavery. Glory to those who would keep their struggle for the liberation of the enslaved in spite of heavy odds, carping humiliation, storms and dangers till the downtrodden secure their human rights.

So to secure the human rights to all the downtrodden people was the ultimate dream of Babasaheb. Has that dream been fulfilled after 44 years after his death?

Here is another statement of Babasaheb about the dalit employees of his time:

"There is some progress on education in our society. By acquiring education some people have reached to the higher positions; but these educated people have deceived me. I was hoping from them that after acquiring higher education they will serve the society; but what I am seeing is that a crowd of small and big clerks has gathered around, who are busy feeding themselves and their families".

Please note Babasaheb made these remarks during his public speech at Agra on 18 March 1956. Has the situation changed today?

Babasaheb wanted our people to contribute 5% of their resources (time and financial) for the cause of the upliftment of our society. Do we do it?

Politics:

In political field, Babasaheb said way back in 1924 that"Write down on the walls of your houses that we want to be the ruling race".

Have we grabbed any political power? Even in Maharashtra for the last 3 decades or so we have not been able to elect more that one or two MLAs through RPI, the party which Babasaheb himself was to launch(the constitution of RPI was written by Babasaheb). I hope we do not mistook the MLAs and MPs who are elected through Congress, BJP etc as the real representatives of our society. This can be easily verified from their performance in the assemblies and parliament. The only success in this direction is through BSP in U.P.

Buddhism:

Babasaheb wanted to make India a Buddhist country. Till date we have not converted more than 1% of India's population to Buddhism. A dismal performance of the organisations, like Buddhist Society of India, which Babasaheb formed exlusively to work for the propagation of Buddhism.

An all round review of his mission and its achievements and to rededicate to complete the unfulfilled dream of Babasaheb, is the real homage to this great victorious revolutionary, the only of its kind in the last 2000 years.

Raju Kamble