Ambedkar and the Indian Constitution

AT a time when contemporary scholarship is expected to take note of B R Ambedkar' s work ('Gandhi-Ambedkar Interface: When Shall the Twain Meet?' by Suhas Palshikar, EPW, August 3, 1996) for actualisation of present-day emancipatory discourse, Arun Shourie appears with all his might to wrest from history the enviable place that Ambedkar is accorded and deprive him of the credit for authorship of India's Constitution. A year back he wrote in Mahanagar (Mumbai) how Ambedkar by joining the Viceroy's Executive Council (1942-46) as a labour member worked in tandem with British power and betrayed the Quit India Movement by criticising and ridiculing Gandhiji. He alleged that Ambedkar acted as a spokesman and agent of British power and glorified their deeds by supporting and defending their policies.