‘Publicly-funded institutions under government attack’

Unless education is accessible to all without barriers of caste, religion and social strata, the experiment of Indian democracy cannot be called successful. “The current regime ahas attacked publicly funded institutions which have brought in an element of inclusiveness. Privatisation of education will defeat goals visualised by Ambedkar,” said academic-writer Ananya Vajpeyi, at Vidyaranya School at an event organised by Manthan on BR Ambedkar’s birth anniversary on Saturday.

“Ambedkar was the creator of political consciousness in India. He challenged the idea of untouchability. He chose the ordering of our Preamble to begin with justice as he realised that this founding norm was more important than anything else,” said Ms. Vajpeyi, a fellow at the Centre for Study of Developing Societies.

“Ambedkar created the plinth and scaffolding to allow India to emerge as a democracy. But he realised it would be a flawed democracy if justice is not the cornerstone in a post-colonial society saturated with inequality. Now we are becoming an unequal society and have normalised caste,” said Ms. Vajpeyi, analysing the message of Ambedkar from his life and work.