A TRIBUTE TO DR. AMBEDKAR.

On 6th December 2010, we are observing the 54th death anniversary of Dr. Ambedkar. The followers of Dr. Ambedkar from all over India will throng to the Chaityabhoomi, Mumbai, to pay homage to the great man of this millennium. The life of this great man is a saga of struggle for upliftment of the poor and the downtrodden. Casteism and untouchability is a curse to the Indian society. The low-caste people were living a life worst than animals. In fact, castism is worse than slavery of western country. Babasaheb himself had to undergo the wrath of high caste people throughout his life. Tears automatically roll out of the eyes when one goes through the stories where Babasaheb has to suffer at the hands of Savarnas when he was a child and student. But he never bowed down and has done great work for the downtrodden. Oxford University has published a book ‘Makers of the Universe’, and in that, they rank Lord Buddha in the number one position and Dr. Ambedkar as the fourth. Even Barack Obama recognized Babasaheb’s greatness in his parliamentary speech.

Millions of people have improvised their lives through government jobs by using reservation. Some became IAS officers; some became MPs. Could these people get this status without reservation given by Dr. Ambedkar? Unfortunately, some people have forgotten the path shown by Babasaheb. They do not think beyond their families. Some people even hide their castes. Babasaheb expected that the educated people will show light to the people who are poor and downtrodden. But unfortunately, these people betrayed the hopes of Dr. Ambedkar and as a result, the movement started by Babasaheb is slowing down. Only poor people & villagers are participating in the movements. Could these people wake up now & contribute to the movement of Dr. Ambedkar by coming out of their homes?

I will visit Chaityabhoomi, Dadar, Mumbai to pay homage to this messiah of the downtrodden.

OH ! GOD MPS ARE POOR

Oh! God MPs are poor. It is the perceptions of MPs of India. They have decided to take 300 percent hike in salary for them. They thought that they are the poor people of India & are not in a position to serve the country due to their poverty. Maharashtra govt did not lag behind & decided to hike the salary by 60 percent for their MLAs. Other state govts are likely to follow the suit.

First corporate India started giving hefty salary to their employees. It caused tremendous inflation. To cope up the inflation, the govts have given the pay hikes to their employees. Now the MPs are following the suit. These pay hikes all around is going to cause the inflation. The two categories i.e. farmers & labourers in unorganized sector are going to be severely hit by the inflation & they are not going to get any kind of relief like others got. The vicious circle of inflation is going to cause some more suicides of farmers.

The corporate India is multiplying their wealth & they have defeated American Industrialists in this race. In India, industrialists can take advantage of loopholes in the laws or violate the laws & can go unpunished. Whereas in countries like USA & China such violaters of are hanged. There is no control over the such greedy industrialists. Some Industrialists have become billionaire overnight in connivance with some greedy politicians. We have forgotton the socialistic model of mixed economy of Nehru. Now our politician are dreaming to make India superpower at the cost of lives of farmers.

Farmers Suicides in Vidarbha

Every day farmers of Vidarbha are committing suicides & more or less same trend is seen in entire India. As per one survey, more than 40000 farmers have committed suicides in entire India in the past one & half decade. The figure has become alarming. It seems nobody bothers since farmers suicides have become daily affair.

Few years back farmers were happy community. They were earning sufficient & were leaving dignified life as they did not have to face inflation. Farmers by nature are simple & straight people. Now they cannot cope up with rising inflation & they prefer to die instead of facing society as a dejected person. They feel ashamed in the society if they are not able to repay the loans which forces them to take the root of suicides. The reasons of suicides are purely economical policies of the govt. The policy of LPG i.e. Liberalization, Privatization & Globalization have hit the poor sections of society bitterly. It gave the farmers suicides in legacy. Maharashtra govt has set up a committee to find out the reasons of suicide. A fat report was submitted blaming on failures of monsoon, uncontrollable pests, reduction in sizes of land holdings due to population increase, increase in the cost of seeds, fertilizers, pesticides etc. etc.

Real reason of suicides is rising cost of living which is a byproduct of LPG. No doubt , there is economic progress of India but it has benefited Industrialists & urban higher middle class. The ill effects of LPG have hit the poor sections of society. Profit margins of Industrialists have multiplied but the incomes of farmers gone downwards. It has become difficult for farmers to cope up with the inflation & they get trapped in the vicious circle of debt. Govt has not come with any concrete policy to counter the affected sections of the society suffered by LPG policy. Another example is privatization has fully stopped the recruitment of SC/STs. .No govt has bothered about ill effects of LPG.

Farmers are dying but no politicians are bothering. In fact the top politicians & Industrialists are multiplying their wealth & farmers are becoming poorer & poorer day by day. They have become insensitive towards the sorrows & pains of the poor. I recall the sensitivity of Freedom fighter Sane Guruji . This great man has written mind boggling books like Shyamchi Aai & also gone in jail while fighting for freedom movement of India. But independence has not brought any relief to the lives of the poors. It was unbearable for him to see the poverty of the people & he preferred to die by consuming a poison. No one is asking today’s politician to die but at least become fractionally sensitivs towards the lives of the poor.


Bodhisattwa Shendre

3 Idiots, an eye opener

3 cheers to Aamir Khan for 3 idiots. Aamir has taken a dig at present education system where the students have to memorize & then to reproduced the things in 3 hours. Further rich students get spoon feeding in tution classess. In short , the present education is based on Ratta Maro principle. IITians who study engineering & then take up the jobs in banks. Parents force the children to study the subjects where the students don’t have any interest..

The student who score higher marks are supposed to be meritorious. Really speaking, a tribal who is working in the forest is more talented who has to face difficult conditions for survival. The carpenter, the electrician , the plumber are much more talented & skillful who are doing practical work. But our society gives least importance to them. The English speaking MBA graduates are offered unimaginable hefty salaries which widens the rift in the society. These people are proficient in numerical & are highly theoretical. This terminology is known as merit. The proponent of merit are against the reservation for SC/STs. They are speaking for merit of Ratta. Reservation provides level playing field to weaker sections which is required for betterment of society.

Bodhisattwa Shendre

A Tribute To Prof.Arun Kamble

It is a sad news learnt from internet that Mr. Arun Kamble is no more. His dead body was found in Hussein Sagar lake in Hydrabad on 21st Dec 2009 . He was undergoing depression during last phase of life. Prof. Arun Kamble , Raja Dhale, Arjun Dangle were the founders of Dalit Panthers, a youth movement of Dalit youths of Maharashtra. 1970 onwards Dalit Panthers had the capacity to fight Shiv Sena on the streets. Shiv Sena has grown from strength to strength but Dalit Panthers weakened year after year. The reasons are internal bickering & lack of financial support. Whereas Shiv Sena had better financial strength & clandestine support of successive govts for fighting against Dalit movement.

Prof. Kamble was on forefront in the movement of re christening the Marathwada University to Dr. Ambedkar Marathwada University. Prof. Kamble & his comrades have given new dimensions to Dalit literature which brought out Dalits from clutches of blind faiths & old illogical traditions. His marathi books Dharmantarachi Bhimgarjana & Chalwaliche Divas are worth mentioning. He was national General Secretary of Janata Dal & he was Ph.D. guide in Mumbai University.

His contributions to the movement of Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar will be long remembered. Jai Bhim to Arun Kamble.

By-Bodhisattwa Shendre

Reservation in Private is a Dire Necessity

Only handful of Dalits & Tribals could do little economic progress due to Job reservation policy in govt. But hue & cry is made by higher echelons of a society against job reservation . Educated parents spread ante reservation venom among their children. Dalit & Tribal students are taunted & humiliated in the schools & colleges. Now full stop has been put to the reservation policy because of the privatization policy of the govt.

British realized the pathetic situations of the downtrodden of the society whose status was lesser than animals. Morley-Minto commission had given some benefits to the oppressed classes. Then due to efforts of Dr. Ambedkar, reservation in jobs were given to the SC/STs constitutionally. The policy of reservation was implemented half heartedly till 1990. Only handful of SC/STs could get benefits due to reservation till this time. Then came the Privatization policy during the time of Narsingh Rao & Manmohan Singh, the doors of recruitment were totally shut for Dalits. Earlier public sectors were recruiting about 10000 SC/ST engineering graduates every year. Now there is almost nil recruitment. Many of these engineering graduates practically came on the roads as they do not have any sources in private companies, their only source of reservation system was snatched from them. This has happened in all kinds of Jobs. The doors of economic progress of SCs/STs are totally shut due to privatization policy after 1990. They are being forced to old slavery system.

It is well known fact that jobs in the private sectors can be obtained through the insiders. Dalits & Tribals do not have access to this kind of system. Higher caste people get preferences in this system which is in existence since generations. Is this not a reservation system? Why no one speaks about this system? Only questions are raised about reservation of SC/STs. The proponents of merit do not understand that the reservation for Dalits helps them to compensate discriminations which they are facing in every walk of life. It is not wise to ask Dalits & Tribals to compete in the unfair competition. The present society full of discriminations cannot offer level playing field to dalits & tribals. They are the victims of exclusions.

The private sector is fully engrossed in profit earnings. On their own they will not come forward for affirmative action which is in existence in USA. Govt has to make law for job reservation in private in order bring economic upliftment of weaker sections. Already considerable delay has taken place since 1990, govt must wake up & act for job reservation weaker sections in private.

- Bodhisattwa Shendre

LONG LIVE UDIT RAJ!!

It is pleasant coincidence that the Birthday of Dr. Udit Raj falls on 26th Jan on the Republic day . He is the lone battler fighting for the rights of Dalits which is the most exploited strata of Indian society. Udit Raj is struggling for Dalits through welfare organization like Lord Buddha club & confederation of SC/ST organization.

History of India replete with atrocities on lower castes by higher castes. Earlier stalling the progress of lower castes was done through methods scripted in Manusmriti. Now it is done by challenging reservation in courts & making bureaucratic rules etc. Taking shelter of Supreme court verdict, 5 GRs were made by bureaucracy which stalled complete functioning of job reservation system. At that juncture you have brought pressure on govt by organizing SC/ST MPs & organizing huge rallies at Delhi. As a result , govt repealed 3 GRs. You have led the movement by leaving the lucrative job of commissioner of Taxes. People struggle to get this kind of high profile job of govt of India. It requires great courage & inner strengths to sacrifice such jobs before completion of 20 years of service. This is the greatest sacrifice , I have seen in contemporary dalit movement. There are many dalit leaders mushroomed in Gallis & Mohallas of India but they have motivation of money. They read one or two books of Dr. Ambedkar & consider themselves as the most learned creatures on the earth & their ego goes to seventh heaven. Dalit movement is hampered due to these kind of leaders.

At the moment , I feel you can only show the light in the darkness especially at this point of time when there is a upsurge from reactionary forces of high castes against the Dalits. You are the leader having base of pure Ambedkarism. There may be few followers with you at this juncture but numbers will go up & up in futures as the struggle has the base of honesty & sacrifice.

On this day of 26th of Jan, may the hearty wishes of your admirers & followers give you strengths to fight for the exploited. Let the others built their castles on Moon, you remain attached to the ground on earth fighting for the cause of dalits.