Anand Teltumbde. File
| Photo Credit: Today News 24
TodayтАЩs India is more casteist than ever before, scholar and civil rights activist Anand Teltumbde said on the eve of Ambedkar Jayanti. Grandson-in-law of the architect of the Constitution, the 73-year-old said B.R. Ambedkar is being used by political parties to get Dalit votes.
тАЬPanchteerth [five places associated with AmbedkarтАЩs life] has been created in his name and there are тАШI am here due to AmbedkarтАЩ claims made, but they (political parties) are trampling his teachings at every moment,тАЭ he said.
Dr. Teltumbde, who taught at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, and Indian Institute of Management, is caught up with visits to police stations and courts these days. An accused in the Bhima Koregaon caste violence case, he spent over two years in jail before being granted bail in November last year.
Elaborating on his contention that caste is even more entrenched in these times, he attributed it to тАЬthe kind of politics unleashed todayтАЭ. тАЬThere is always a subtle way in which caste operates in our society. Unless caste is totally abolished in India, nothing can be done here,тАЭ he said, referring to Dr. AmbedkarтАЩs writings including┬а Annihilation of Caste..
Dr. Teltumbde agreed that the Dalit iconтАЩs relevance has increased with politics getting competitive and splintered. тАЬEarlier when there was a monopoly of the Congress, he was neglected. Even 10 years after his death in 1956, there was not a single road or a monument in his name,тАЭ he said.
But the increasing invocation, he added, meant nothing since no political party follows his principles in their true spirit.
