Modi's obsession with size continues, this time at Ambedkar's expense

Glowing tributes to BR Ambedkar notwithstanding, Prime Minister Narendra Modi seems unable to curb his tendency to project himself over and above the heroes of freedom struggle and first years of self-government. While the ruling BJP and the sprawling Sangh Parivar play their appropriation games, picking one icon of independence movement after another, no matter the gaping ideological chasms, the latest blooper comes from the PM himself, or at least those whose jobs depend on pleasing him daily.

PM Modi, after having compared Ambedkar to US Civil Rights movement icon Martin Luther King Jr. (why wasn't it the other way round since King was Ambedkar's junior in every way), went on to lay the foundation stone for the Dr Ambedkar National Memorial in New Delhi.

He tweeted:

However, what glared from the faux shiny metal plaque of the foundation stone was the unmissable "Shri Narendra Modi" - in Hindi and English - while the "Dr. Ambedkar National Memorial" needed some straining of the eyes, if not craning of the neck.

The difference in font size is telling. Unwittingly or not, this monstrosity of a foundation stone is an indicator enough of exactly how useful is Ambedkar's name and the Dalit vote-bank to BJP's dwindling fortunes in the election-bound states of India.

That Modi would pay lip-service to Ambedkar's greatness after his government-suppoted stooges came down heavily on Ambedkar Periryar Study Circle at IIT Madras, or on Ambedkar Students Association at Hyderabad Central University (which subsequently led to Rohith Vemula's suicide), is hardly surprising. The latest is that the HCU VC Apparao has been reinstated, the same man who signed the suspension orders of the five ASA students, including the late Vemula.

But what kind of rural electrification drive will be deemed successful if the minds of the people across our 18,000 villages are deliberately kept in the dark?