Seminar on Dr Ambedkar’s Timeless Legacy

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The need to look at the legacy of BabasahebAmbedkar other than from the prism of social reform was stressed at a seminar on 18 April 2016 at New Delhi. Delivering the inaugural address at the discussion on the Babasaheb’s legacy jointly organised by ShaheedBhagat Sing (evening) College and Indian Institute of Public Administration, Union Minister ChaudhariBirender Singh said that the time has come to look at BabasahebAmbedkar’s philosophy in broad perspective. Centre for Reforms, Development and Justice was the knowledge partner for the seminar.
Singh, who is Union Minister for the Rural Development and Panchayti Raj, said “Confining BabashebAmbedkar’s legacy only to the ‘social reform’ is like avoiding other aspects of his philosophy, because he has not only paved the way for the social reform in India but being as economist he also stressed on the need of economic reform for the country.”
In order to explain the economic reform which BabashebAmbedkar has envisaged for the country, Singh cited example that how the expansion of banking facility has enabled the poor and marginalized citizen to avail various facilities which was earlier limited only to a few well off population.
“The existing economic divide is not any lesser disease than the social divide. Also, it is the economic equality which has capacity to eradicate most of the existing problem in the society, saying this is not a denial of the need of an egalitarian society,” Singh said.
Delivering the keynote address, KG Suresh, Director General of Indian Institute of Mass communication (IIMC) said, “Political parties seem to be seeking to outdo each other in claiming the legacy B R Ambedkar, the chief architect of the constitution has left behind. It has become a fashion to claim BabashebAmbedkar’s legacy even by those raising flags for the traitor like YakubMenon.”
The seminar was thrown open for discussion by Sidharth Mishra, President, CRDJ, listing out the points for debate. Dr PK Khurana, the college principal, delivered the welcome address. DrSaurabh Kumar Dubey and DrSarad Kumar Yadav were convenor and co-convenor of the deliberations.
Taking a dig at the recent debate over nationalism versus anti-nationalist, a former member of Planning Commission and economist, NarendraJadhav said “Ambedkar’s sense of nationalism was not just about the transfer of power from the British to the Indians, it was about national reconstruction, social and economic equity, redistributive justice and democracy in a genuine sense.”
The seminar on the timeless legacy of Ambedkar was supported by DrAmbedkar Foundation, the Centre for Reforms, Development and Justice (CRDJ) and the Millennium post. The seminar was attended by many distinguished academicians journalists and the students. The other eminent speakers included former Union Minister Dr Sanjay Paswan, Prof SushmaYadav (IIPA), Dr MA Sikander (Ambedkar University Delhi),Prof SangeetRagi, Prof SP Singh, DrHimanshu Roy and DrSrikantPandey (Delhi University), Dr Sanjay Bhardwaj (JNU), Prof Sheela Reddy (IIPA) and DrSanjeev Kumar Sharma (Meerut University).