NEW DELHI: Absence from the records of B R Ambedkar’s resignation letter from the Cabinet as Law Minister in 1951 has triggered a political controversy, with Rajesh Lilothia, Chairman of Congress Party’s Scheduled Caste (SC) Department, saying that the disappearance of the letter was “intentional”.
“Babasaheb was against the hateful ideology of the Hindutva right-wing, and all the documented proofs of the same are being deleted one by one. This is a major disservice to not only Dalits and the people of other marginalized castes of India, but also to Dr BR Ambedkar, whom RSS-BJP duo wants to appropriate so badly to serve their own vote-bank politics”, Lilothia said in a statement.
“No one knows how many more precious historical documents have been removed from the records by the current Chowkidaar government. Can we trust such a Chowkidaar Prime Minister who, for his legacy, is planning to demolish the heritage National Archives of India building in the name of his Central Vista Redevelopment Project? We will start filling RTIs to get all the original documents of Dr B R Ambedkar from the government”, the statement added.
News about Ambedkar’s resignation letter not being found in the records broke after a Chennai resident moved an RTI application seeking certified copy of the resignation letter.
The applicant wrote to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), Cabinet Secretariat, and President’s Secretariat.
The PMO forwarded the application to the Cabinet Secretariat and the latter informed that the President of India accepted Ambedkar’s resignation as Minister of Law. The date on which the Prime Minister accepted his resignation may be available in the PMO, said the Cabinet Secretariat’s Chief Public Information Officer (CPIO).
The applicant filed an appeal with the CIC after receiving no further information from the CPIOs of the three top offices.
On February 10, Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) Y K Sinha, citing\categorical submission from the President’s Secretariat that no information is held in their record\on this account, stated that\ no further intervention can be made by the Commission.
Stating that researchers studying Ambedkar would also stumble into difficulties owing to the non-availability of the original copy of the Dalit icon’s resignation from Nehru Ministry, Ravi Bodh, PhD student at the JNU’s Centre for Studies in Research and Development (CSRD) said, “the probability of people with vested interest destroying the letter cannot be ruled out”.
“The historical letter of Dr B R Ambedkar is not just a resignation letter. He articulated many of his grievances in the letter. The letter has now gone missing. Is it negligence or purposely hidden”, Girish Bhai, also a PhD student working on Ambedkar’s social and political ideas, remarked.
Talking to the Tribune, Govind Mohan, Secretary, Ministry of Culture, said the National Archives was not having any copy of B R Ambedkar’s resignation letter.