"Reservation is a constitutional provision to bring up the underprivileged, socially and politically deprived sections of the society to its mainstream. More importantly it is not something that is formulated to take away rights of a section of people or to give special provision to a group of non-deserving people," says Hiba Haroon, an MPhil student of Jawaharlal Nehru University, in a live video on the Facebook page of Kerala’s Bhim Army.
Like Hiba, a handful of students and Dalit activists had been doing live broadcasts every day for the past six days on the page at 8 pm, talking about Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, the Father of the Indian Constitution.
The lectures are part of a 10-day long online campaign called 'Bhim Jayanathi Maholsavam', a celebration of Ambedkar Jayanthi (his birth anniversary) which falls on April 14. About six such lectures have so far been completed.
The most recent talk was 'Dr BR Ambedkar and Reservation', delivered by Hiba on Thursday. Hiba explains what reservation is and why it's still needed. She also addresses the possible questions and criticisms that would be raised on the subject.
"We often hear people casually saying that they did not get jobs or admissions in institutions because of reservation and that merit is being sabotaged due to reservation. But what we have to understand is that merit is not an abstract concept, rather it is a social construct which depends on a person's background including the sociocultural context from where one comes," she says.
Citing examples, Hiba points out that a person hailing from an oppressed caste has to put in more efforts than someone coming from a privileged caste. "It is the disparity in this effort that is being considered and equalised through the social justice in reservation," she says.
Student activist Dinu Veyil, who spoke as part of the daily campaign on the subject ‘Quarantine days and cultural Hindutva: An Ambedkarite Reading’, on Wednesday, talked about how through television shows like the Ramayana, which is being re-telecast by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry on DD National during the lockdown, the right wing is trying to propagate Hindutva ideology among the people.
Talking to TNM, Bhim Army’s Kerala general secretary, Harsh Vardhana Kumar, says that an online campaign was started so that the spirit of Ambedkar Jayanthi reaches the public despite there being a lockdown.
“Chandrasekhar Azad (Bhim Army founder) had told everyone to do a similar online campaign for three days to commemorate Bhim Jayanthi, but we prolonged it to 10 days and the event is getting an increasing reception day by day,” he says.
Anti-caste activists like Sunny M Kapikad, Dr Rekha Raj, and Chinju Aswathi among others have taken part in the lecture series till now.
Read: