Congress is trying tooth and nail in ensnaring Union Home Minister Amit Shah by using a trimmed video to allege that he insulted Dr. BR Ambedkar. Several of its leaders and ecosystem has been peddling the trimmed video to further a malicious narrative. In the political slugfest, both the national parties are accusing each other of not being the ideological successors of Ambedkar. In response, BJP and its senior leaders have called out Congress’ falsehoods and listed out countless instances when the Congress insulted Dr. BR Ambedkar. Amidst a political storm over Congress’ anti-Ambedkar stance throughout history, an old letter of late PM Jawaharlal Nehru has resurfaced. In the letter, Pt. Nehru told Edwina Mountbatten about Dr. Ambedkar’s electoral loss.
According to reports, India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru wrote a letter to Lady Edwina Mountbatten on January 16, 1952 which has resurfaced in the backdrop of a heated debate over Congress’ history of insulting the legacy of Dr. BR Ambedkar. Published in the selected works of Jawaharlal Nehru, the letter talked about the Congress’ performance in India’s first democratic elections. Strikingly, in his letter to Lady Mountbatten, Pt Nehru focused particularly on Dr. Ambedkar’s electoral defeat.
In the letter, Nehru discussed the results of the 1952 general elections in the Bombay province, expressing satisfaction with Congress’ success. He wrote, “Our success has been far greater than expected. Ambedkar has been dropped out. The Socialists have not done well at all. The Communists, or rather a group with Communist leadership, have done much better than expected. No other party, except the Congress, has made much of a mark.”
He noted that while Congress had secured a decisive victory, other parties, including the Socialists and the Communists, failed to make a significant impact.
In an ironic parallel to today’s politics san ideology, Nehru lamented that unprincipled alliances were being formed by opposition groups, singling out Ambedkar’s All-India Scheduled Castes Federation for combining forces with “communal factions”. He viewed such alliances as detrimental to public perception. Nehru’s letter sheds light on the intense opposition Congress faced during the elections, including personal attacks aimed at him. “As this election has progressed, it has almost become a personal attack on me from all the other groups,” he remarked.
The Congress party emerged victorious in Bombay State, securing 269 out of 315 seats in the State Assembly. In Bombay North Reserved Constituency, Congress candidate Narayan Kajrolkar defeated Ambedkar by a margin of 14,000 votes. The All-India Scheduled Castes Federation secured only one seat in the Bombay State Assembly and won just two out of 32 contested seats in the Lok Sabha.
It must be remembered that the Indian National Congress played a key role in Ambedkar’s electoral defeats. In the first general elections of 1952 and later in the 1954 by-elections, Congress actively campaigned against him. Jawaharlal Nehru himself treated Ambedkar’s defeat as a prestige issue, ensuring that Congress mobilized its resources to prevent him from gaining a parliamentary seat.
The Congress while it was in power did nothing but abuse Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar. And today the oldest party carries the idea of fetching vote banks in the name of Ambedkar. This letter of Jawaharlal Nehru boasting of his electoral success and how his party defeated Dr Ambedkar to Lady Edwina Mountbatten.
