Vimal Patil@vimal4USA
Today is Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Jayanti. 14th April.
All over the country, political parties, beneficiaries of his policies and nonprofit organizations are busy flooding social media with his pic, biographies, and his inspirational quotes. But hardly anyone will speak the uncomfortable truth: how badly we have strayed from his core principles.
Dr. Ambedkar was not just a social reformer, he was one of the greatest minds in world history. A man who rose from hardest societal conditions to become the architect of modern India. Yet in his final days he was alone. No political leaders, no followers from the communities he fought for no members of the schedule castes or backward classes checked on him. He died in sleep. Suffering from uncontrolled diabetes and heart. Diseases worsened by decades of relentless struggle for others.
He dedicated his life to uplift the marginalized. The castle-based reservation system he proposed was not just a policy. It was a temporary corrective measure, a social remedy meant to level the playing field. It was designed to give generations of oppressed communities access to education, jobs, and political representations -opportunities they were historically denied.
But 75 years later we must ask ourselves, have we honored his purpose?
Reservation has become a political tool, a vote bank strategy, and in many cases, a means of Entitlement, not Empowerment. Instead of being used as a ladder to climb up and build as self-sustained future, it turned into a permanent Crutch.
Many of the communities that benefited from reservation now insist on continuing the status of being less privileged. Despite generations of progress, this is creating social imbalances. The frustration of economically backward people from “open Categories, is growing. Movements are emerging demanding that reservations be based on economic conditions, not caste alone.
Worst of all, Nobody wants a merit-based system anymore. We are afraid of competition. We are afraid of level playing field.
But this was not Ambedkar’s dream, his vision was of an India where caste would no longer determine opportunity, where every child – regardless of birth- would compete and rise on merit and effort.
Ambedkar once said, “You cannot build anything on the foundation of caste. You cannot build a nation. You cannot build up morality. Anything that build on caste will crack and will never be a whole.”
If we truly respect Babasaheb Ambedkar it’s a time we stop just sharing his quotes. Its time we reflect on the true purpose behind his policies—and have the courage to reform in light of today’s India.
That’s how we honor his legacy. Not with garlands and posters, but with actions and accountability.
