Rahul Gandhi to launch BR Ambedkar's 125th birth anniversary celebrations

New Delhi: Rahul Gandhi will inaugurate the national launch of the year-round 125th birth anniversary celebrations of BR Ambedkar by Congress at Mhow in Madhya Pradesh on 2 June, an exercise seen as an attempt to reach out to dalits by the party. Mhow is the birthplace of the architect of Indian Constitution, and June 2 marks the centenary of Ambedkar’s graduation from Columbia University. [caption id=“attachment_2251316” align=“alignleft” width=“380” class=" “]  Image courtesy: Naresh Sharma[/caption] K Raju, Convenor of the Celebrations Committee said that similar state level launch programmes will be organised. The national launch was put off on Ambedkar Jayanti, on 14 April, for a later date to ensure availability of Rahul who was on 56-day long sabbatical during that period. With the national launch, Mhow is expected to see the first dalit rally of Rahul in his decade-long political career. The celebrations are being held at a time when there has been tussle on between Congress and BJP to appropriate the legacy of Ambedkar. In the over last two decades, Ambedkar has been appropriated by dalit outfits like BSP. The party regrets its slow reflexes when during the 1990s leaders like Kanshi Ram succeeded in portraying Congress as having betrayed Ambedkar. The rise of BSP decimated Congress in Uttar Pradesh. Dalits had been a strong support base of Congress some 25 years back. It has been out of power in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar since 1989 which saw its social base crumbling in the wake of the Mandal and Mandir surge and later the rise of the BSP. After its worst debacle in the Lok Sabha polls last year, the AICC has lined up a year-long series of programmes in various parts of the country to project that it was champion of the dalit cause. PTI