A Fall Into Sear And Yellow Leaf

But for those familiar with the goings-on related to the memorial—and it’s a list that includes both officials and Ambedkarites—the sorry state of affairs will come as no surprise. The fate of 26, Alipur Road, has been stuck in a state of limbo for more than a decade. After Ambedkar passed away on December 6, 1956, ownership passed on from the Raja of Sirohi (Ambedkar was his tenant) to the Jindal family. The Jindals demolished the original building and built their residence there— few at the time had imagined the political import the site would gain decades after Ambedkar’s death. It was at his birth centenary in 1991 that the demand to acquire the house in which he had lived his last days gained momentum. A full decade later, under the then NDA government, the bungalow was bought from the Jindals and the memorial inaugurated in 2003. “The memorial should have been completed by now. The land was acquired nearly a decade ago, and there were funds to develop it well. Whatever development took place, it happened when the NDA was in power at the Centre. But for the last eight years, with the UPA in power, not much has happened in the right direction. The intent to complete it is clearly missing,” says Ambedkar’s grandson and politician Prakash Yashwant Ambedkar. Says a senior bureaucrat who didn’t want to be named, “What followed the acquisition was a less than enthusiastic movement to see it turned into a worthy memorial. The momentum created by Ambedkar’s followers earlier had weakened.”

And thus it lies in its current state of neglect. A few years ago, there was again a bit of interest generated around the memorial, which falls under the jurisdiction of the Ambedkar Foundation and the ministry of social justice and empowerment. The bungalow was whitewashed, the lawns were beautified and the galleries were cleaned up. Yet, what the place needed was not simply such sporadic repair, but a complete overhaul. It calls for an entirely new structure, as befits a memorial—large halls, a proper library, the identification and proper display of Ambedkar’s material possessions for visitors.

The issue, though, has grown to become much larger than the premises of a building in general disrepair, and the subtext has been difficult for Ambedkarites to ignore—much less swallow. Many point to the fact that the movement to convert the bungalow into a memorial slowed once the UPA came to power in 2004. “It could be a deliberate move on the part of this government to neglect it,” says Dalit activist Kancha Ilaiah. “The Congress has never accepted Dr Ambedkar—even after his death,” believes Prakash Ambedkar.

As it stands, there seems to be renewed interest in officialdom to take up the case of the neglected memorial. Last year, prime minister Manmohan Singh directed a high-level committee to get the ball rolling. Officials claim the report from the committee is close to being ready and, once approved, will see the current bungalow demolished within a year and a new structure erected in its place, with a provision of Rs 100 crore. But Prakash Ambedkar is cynical about the project taking any shape all. “Not as long as the UPA government is at the Centre,” he says. While some of Ambedkar’s followers argue that a Rs 100-crore fund dished out by the NDA government has already been frittered away by the current government, others like Gajbhiye prefer to see a silver lining amidst the debris. “I have just sent off a letter to home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde relaying the sentiment that our faith may have been broken, but we will fight this out to the very end. We need this central memorial to strengthen Ambedkar’s revolutionary views, to carry them forward and to continue to be an inspiration to all of us.”

Whether the Ambedkar memorial will see the queues that throng the Nehru Memorial, though, remains to be seen.

Have The Body?

Framing the law of the land needed an iron will. Maintaining its sanctity required a stronger box.