On Election Eve, BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis Bows Down to Ambedkar and the Constitution

The Bharatiya Janata Party, has, in the past, not shown much regard for constitution niceties and just recently, before the general elections, some senior members had suggested they would even change it if they won 400 seats. But with elections in Maharashtra approaching, the party’s senior leaders have suddenly discovered their faith in it.

Realising that the INDIA alliance’s “Save Constitution” campaign, during the recently concluded general elections, had had an impact, the BJP-led coalition Mahayuti government recently issued ads in leading dailies of Maharashtra. The ads were published just a few days days before the Election Commission announced that the elections to the state assembly would be conducted on November 20 this year.

The ads, very prominently, carried the image of Maharashtra’s BJP leader and deputy chief minister of the state, Devendra Fadnavis, standing with folded hands at the feet of a huge statue of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar. Three words “Ghar Ghar Samvidhan (constitution in every home)” were printed at the top. On the right hand corner of the full page ad were tiny photos of Narendra Modi, chief minister Eknath Shinde and deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar.

Just below the statue of Ambedkar the words “Dhanyavad Devendra (thanks Devendra)” are printed. At the bottom, gratefulness to Fadnavis is expressed by several organisations among which is a women’s body named after Savitribai Phule, along with the Birsa Munda Forum, Democratic People’s Movement, Jai Bhim Army, Samata Parishad and Rajarshi Sahu Krida Pratisthan. It is indeed quite extraordinary that most of those organisations represent communities that are Dalit, tribal and women-led. Very strangely, there seems to be no mention of the BJP or any of its affiliated bodies among these entities.

It is not as if this is the first time Fadnavis or anyone from the BJP has paid obeisance to Ambedkar. Every year, on April 14, his birth anniversary, the BJP’s leaders are photographed in front of the leader’s statue. But this time, things are different.

It is worth pondering the sudden compulsion behind the display of this newfound love for the constitution.

Fadnavis himself gave the answer on June 4, 2024 when general elections results were declared and BJP started losing seats as compared to its tally of 2019. “The unfortunate outcome of the results is that the opposition attempted to win the seats through its propaganda that we would change the constitution,” he said. “But in elections,” he admitted, “the people’s mandate has to be accepted as it is”.

Also read: Maharashtra: Dalit Ambedkarite Groups Announce Support for Opposition Coalition

“We will do deep introspection and will recover our loss in the next assembly election,” he had also said. Some of that introspection is now visible.

It is worth recalling that the INDIA alliance, while campaigning during the recently concluded general elections, made the protection and even saving of the constitution a major electoral issue after statements by BJP leaders about possibly changing some provisions. For the alliance, this proved to be a successful strategy. People in several states of India and more so in Maharashtra were fearful that if the BJP won all those seats it would alter the constitution, anchored in the legacy of Dr B.R. Ambedkar. They were afraid that this would mean the scrapping of reservation for Dalits and other weaker sections of society. It resulted in reduced number of seats for BJP in Maharashtra and loss of the majority in the Lok Sabha.

Ahead of the announcement of the dates for elections to the Maharashtra assembly, the BJP, which is part of the Mahayuti coalition government undoubtedly became apprehensive that the party might once again find itself in a weak spot because of the persistent campaign of the Congress and other parties of the Maha Vikas Aghadi to save the constitution. Such apprehensions were further compounded after the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, indicted BJP for the collapse of Shivaji’s statue nine months after it was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Gandhi said that the tragic fall of the statue was like the attack on the constitution, which reflected the legacy of Shivaji rooted in the ideals of equality and inclusion.

Dalits, tribals and other disadvantageous sections of society revere Ambedkar as a saviour and hold the constitution as a sovereign remedy to address the sufferings heaped on them on the grounds of their caste and other ascribed identities. Fadnavis and the Mahayuti government have mentioned the organisations representing them in the aforementioned ad primarily to appeal for their votes.

The formation of the Mahayuti government by splitting Shiv Sena and Nationalist Congress Party raises several questions regarding the breach of constitutional morality which Ambedkar flagged in his last speech in the Constituent Assembly. The Supreme Court in May 2023 indicted the then Governor of Maharashtra, Bhagat Singh Koshyari, over unjustly asking the Uddhav Thackeray government to prove his majority on the floor of the House following the rebellion by a section of Shiv Sena MLAs led by Eknath Shinde. When such glaring violations amounting to a breach of constitution was taking place, BJP leaders like Fadnavis were happily taking advantage of the situation to occupy the seats of power. At that time the idea to promote the constitution in every house never occurred to those leaders.

Tanya Arora, in Sabrangindia, observed that “The irony of the Mahayuti government now championing the Constitution through campaigns like “Ghar Ghar Sambhavidhan” is glaring, especially given its own troubling history of undermining constitutional principles”. She traces the unconstitutionality involved in formation of the Eknath Shinde led coalition government by engineering the defection of legislators by dispensing with democratic norms and catalogues series of actions such as employment of bulldozers by disregarding due process, punitive measures against constitutionally prescribed methods of expressing dissent and selective targeting of marginalised communities. “After repeatedly trampling upon the very ethos of the Constitution,” she remarks, “it is deeply ironic, and indeed cynical, for this government to now promote itself as a defender of constitutional values”.

Fadnavis whose picture appears in the ad very prominently had himself made remarks against a section of Maharashtrians professing Islamic faith by calling them “Aurangzeb ki aulad,” which is against the ideal of fraternity enshrined in the constitution. Now, he should be mindful that expensive newspaper ads cannot promote constitutional values. Adherence to the letter and spirt of its provisions is a categorical imperative to save the constitution.

In his last speech delivered in the Constituent Assembly on November 25, 1949, Dr Ambedkar, while stating that “On the 26th of January 1950, India would be a democratic country in the sense that India from that day would have a government of the people, by the people, and for the people,” poignantly asked, “What would happen to her democratic Constitution? Will she be able to maintain it or will she lose it again?”

Four days later on November 30, 1949 the RSS mouthpiece Organiser wrote derisively against the constitution by stating that there was nothing ‘Bharatiya’ in it and even went on to regret that its framers never incorporated in it the “laws as enunciated in the Manusmriti.”

The concerns of Ambedkar expressed in 1949 that the constitution might be lost are now being expressed by the people because of the assault on it by the Modi regime. Devendra Fadnavis has been groomed by RSS and so, naturally, the ad carrying his picture for promoting the constitution in every home does not dispel that fear. Rather, it gives an impression that it is bereft of genuine commitment to the constitution and is aimed at political and electoral expediency. The BJP can serve the constitution by committing itself to its principles.

S.N. Sahu served as an officer on special duty to former President K.R. Narayanan.

This piece was first published on The India Cable – a premium newsletter from The Wire & Galileo Ideas – and has been updated and republished here. To subscribe to The India Cable, click here.