Fwd: Fw: Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar’s Platform

[paari vendhan]

The below mail i received form a friend.. old AWAZ member....

To: "shantanu.b...@gmail.com" <shantanu.b...@gmail.com>;
"irfan....@gmail.com" <irfan....@gmail.com>
Sent: Wednesday, 2 November 2011 1:49 PM
Subject: Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar’s Platform

Dear sir,
Myself, the President of LC-1, submit before
your good office a proposal to constructDr Babasaheb Ambedkar’s Platform, in the
faculty of law premises without disturbing any installation as an adjunct in
the open place. This platform would hold a dais at one corner and a
statute of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar at another corner,
to address the students during the student election and serve as a space to
democratically campaign and bar the entry of candidates barging into
the classrooms
during the lectures hours. Since the University of Delhi has provided democracy
wall to place their views, thisDr
Babasaheb Ambedkar’s Platform, would set a new trend in achieving the mileage
of intelligible participation of responsible candidates by expressing
their views.
Through this process, valuable lectures would not be interrupted and the
competent candidates only can get elected as the student leader’s.
The next important question would be why Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar’s statute?
Many famous people had lived in our country,
all of them possessed great characteristics by virtue of birth. Dr
Babasaheb Ambedkarborn
from an untouchable caste rose to the highest position by virtue
ofstriving and struggling. In my
point of view, Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar is one of
the most honorable person who deserves more attention. University of Delhi being
the Asia’s largest university with more than 1,00,000 students receiving direct
and indirect education has not yet received sufficient importance over the
minority interests. Since the inception of Faculty of Law there has always been
meagre number of minority students admitted due to reasons beyound their
control, metropolitan city, economic and social conditions has disfavoured
their existence. Howsoever, the reservation policies are implemented most of
the seats were unfulfilled due to the above stated reasons.
Bharat Ratna Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar is a god of
downtrodden peple, Dr.Ambedkar was not
only known as an architect, Chairman of Drafting
committee of the Constitution of Indiabut also he had dynamic personality
with great beliefs. Indeed, this quality of uplifting the downtrodden people
was predominant.He also fought against
gender inequality, caste-ism and other evils thronging the society back then,
primarily through his speech and writings. He is one of
the best epitomes for all people in their life. As far as I'm
concerned, here I enumerate some of my reasons for this choice.
HISTORY OF
INSTALLING STATUES
The practice of
setting up statues of political leaders on public sites wasintroduced into
India by the British, who installed statues of soldiers and civil servants of
the Raj. After Independence, the practice was continuedwith the installation of
statues of Gandhi and regional figures of theindependence movement, as well as
historical figures such as Shivaji in Maharashtra. The first official statue of
Ambedkar was set up in Bombayin 1962, at the Institute of Science crossing.
Ambedkar was represented as an orator, dressed in a three-piece suit, his right
arm and finger upraised as a greatman lecturing the nation. In 1966, another
statue made of bronze was set up in front of theNational Parliament in New
Delhi and unveiled by the President of India,Dr S. Radhakrishnan. This national
recognition of Ambedkar was a significant move, as the Untouchable leader,
despite having chaired the Constitution Committee, had been identified more or
less as a traitor inthe dominant political stereotype of the ruling party ever
since his oppos­ition to Gandhi at the Round Table Conference. In the new
political context of the mid-1960s, the decision to honour Ambedkar was an
attempt by Indira Gandhi to bring about the indispensable need of recogonising
the icon.
The Parliament officially voted to raise the statue
around 1964-65,thanks to the support of the Speaker, Hukkum Singh, who had
chaired Ambedkar’s welcome committee during the latter’s visit to Punjab
in1936. The Sikh politician thus wished to give Ambedkar the national
re­cognition
that he felt he deserved as one of the nation-builders. Even if Ambedkar’s
image did not make it to the Central Hall of Parliament, a massive bronze
statue was set up outside the premises, representing him in his three-piece
suit with the Constitution in one hand, the other arm pointing to the sky. The
statue was made by the same official sculptor as the one in Bombay, and its
main novelty was that he added the Con­stitution, probably to emphasise
Ambedkar’s contribution to the nation. That is, the Parliament House statue
insisted upon Ambedkar’s conformity to the national agenda. This attempt at
bringing Ambedkar within a national consensus in the name of secularism did not
prevent the unscrupulous politician from emphasising Baba sahib to a particular
community to garner vote bank politics.
Statue cult
The Ambedkar statue does not only stand as a major feature of a
particular community but he is accepted and continues to be inspiration of
minorities and downdroden people. Nowadays, in the arena of politics, as stated
supra,Baba sahib has become a tool associated with a particular community
for the purpose of vote bank politics. There has been a lack of
scholarly attention to the deeper social changes involved in the using Baba
sahib as a vote bank tool. The reason is quite obvious because the
people in the power has
discarded the Baba sahib as leader belonging to a particular community,
they do not wish to see his merits as a human being who as a person risen from
dust and reached the pinnacle of glory by sheer dint of merit. The
study of the statues in India and different countries tries
to fill this gap by taking three dimensions into account: the iconography, the
way in which the statues have spread historically, and the meanings and stakes
involved for those who mobilise around them. The assumption is that the
community oriented. struggles for the imposition of their symbol in public
places can contribute to an understanding of the manner in which communities
have imagined the state and engineered strategies towards it. These statues
seem to be the focal point for renewed aspirations towards democracy, while the
ceremonies organised around them have provided not only these
deprived citizens the
opportunities to build some support within the state but represents the due
respect and equality status within the country.
The Ambedkar icon, which has become the symbol of
community identity has to be diluted and de novo approach suo motu by the heads
of the eminent institutions would be trend setter to not only seen but done by
all community people. Attention to the meanings associated with symbols like the
Ambedkar statues by those who mobil­ise around them thus assists our
understanding of grassroots perceptionsof Indian democracy. In the context of
poverty and illiteracy where they operate, such symbolic means have profound
political implications, pro­moting ideals of citizenship and nationhood among
the politically destitute where the state has partially failed.
To put an end to viewing Baba sahib as person affiliated
to a community should come to an end, to divest from particular to general,
institutions like University of Delhi, should suo motu recogonise this eminent
person as a part and parcel to all and sundry.

In conclusion, by noticing to my explanations if to be supposed to
build a statue of a famous person in
our faculty, I think Baba sahib great characters both as a Framer of the
Constitution and human being, risen from the dust deserves a corner in the law
faculty because of his affiliation and affection to law as a social tool to
revolution is undeniable fact.
To
sum up, I think that humankind must know its history and pass down all its
knowledge and experience to the next generations. A statue or monument is a
simple and good way to remember and value our history and people who played an
essential role in it.
As stated
above, Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar’s Platform, would serve multifold purpose
quintessentially
from the view point of uninterrupted education, competent candidates as union
leaders, recogonition of Dr Babasaheb
Ambedkar not as a person of particular community but person admired and
accepted by all and sundry.Hence I beg
your good office to consider this proposal in larger interest and allow this
proposal to set new trend in the history of University of Delhi to the rest of
the institutions in the country. With all humility, I submit this proposal at
your desk.
Your’s ever humble student,

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With love and regards
paari