Unfortunate that Ambedkar's theories, thesis not given prominence, says RSS

New Delhi: RSS on Tuesday rued that despite being a prominent economist, BR Ambedkar’s theories and thesis are not given much prominence and it is “unfortunate” that research is not done over them by universities in the country.

Terming Ambedkar as a “great” labour leader, RSS Joint Secretary Krishna Gopal said that many of the rules in various labour laws apart from the concept of tripartite talks were brought by him which are prevalent even today.

“He was a prominent economist but it is unfortunate that none of the universities in the country do any good research on him… not even on his economic theories,” Gopal said while delivering sixth memorial lecture on “Dr Ambedkar: Multidimentional Personality and Narrative at Indian Institute of Public Administration.”

Gopal claimed that despite graduating in economics from prestigious Columbia University and London School of Economics and releasing important papers on ‘Small holdings in India and their remedies’, Ambedkar’s researches and papers were not even properly published.

“Small holdings in India and their remedies was a big paper of Ambedkar…how agriculture land is getting smaller. Economic Development of this country is not possible through small holdings…He said this 100 years ago. He urged for industrialisation at the earliest as there is much pressure on agriculture.

“Even after 100 years, the research on his theories and thesis that should have happened, its possibility, it seems is bleak,” he said.

Noting that Ambedkar had three ‘gurus’ in his life - Buddha, Kabir and Mahatma Phule, Gopal said that without understanding the three of them, understanding Ambedkar would be incomplete.

The RSS leader said that the Communists had labelled him as “enemy of labourers” but Ambedkar had spoken very strongly about them and had said during one of the speeches that they were a “misguided body of men”.

“Now the communist put a picture of Ambedkar and say that he was leading light of class struggle, how can we believe this? He was labour minister before Independence for five years. The big labour unions today…they too know little about this,” Gopal said.

Gopal said that Ambedkar was the first person to have brought many crucial labour laws in the country including Minimum Wages Factories Act, Providend Fund, subsidised food, medical aid to factory workers and maternity leave for women.

On the issue of Article 370, the RSS leader said that Ambedkar, who was then law minister, was opposed to the idea of giving special status to Jammu and Kashmir and he had told Shiekh Abdullah that it would be a “treacherous” thing to allow something like this to happen.

“When China attacked India, Ambedkar had questioned the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru on his actions. He had said that Nehru is living in the world of dreams and China has come to our door and we cannot protect ourselves. He had a certain view on the foreign policy,” Gopal said.

The RSS leader said that Ambedkar was opposed to dividing states on the basis of language. Ambedkar had said that states should be formed on the basis of administration while also advocated for Hindi as the national language.

PTI