'I think there is an Arun Shourie brigade doing all this'

Arun Shourie is a dirty fellow. He is also silly. And his brigade is instigating violence among people.

That is what Savita Ambedkar, Dr B R Ambedkar's 80-something widow, thinks of the controversial author. And though Mai -- as she is known -- hasn't read Worshipping A False God, she has heard more than enough about it -- and what she heard hasn't been at all pleasant. In any case, doesn't the title itself spell out everything? False god? Ambedkar a false god?

"Arun Shourie, that dirty fellow, what is he writing?" Mai gives vent to anger, "He asks why call Ambedkar a god. You think of your parents as gods, don't you? They give birth to you, look after you... Ambedkar did the same for the backward classes -- that's why they look up at him. Shourie is a silly man to call him a false god. And then, he has written such a fat book on that!"

Mai doesn't think much of Prakash's (Ambedkar's grandson) attempt to counter Shourie book for book, either. The idea is good, yes -- but Prakash is the wrong man for the task. "He (Prakash) is a very soft person, not very mature or educated," she says, "His father was addicted to the batli (bottle) not the movement. You need a very fiery person for this sort of thing."

Does she see any conspiracy behind Shourie's book? Or, the recent police firing against dalits?

Mai sure does. And plunges into another round of Shourie-bashing. "I think there is an Arun Shourie brigade doing all this. It is instigating people to do all the wrong things. I call it a brigade because he has got people behind him," Mai says, "The instigation (for the firing) was from the police’s side. I was there from morning to evening. I roamed the whole (Ramabai Nagar) colony, visited hospitals, made complaints. But nothing has happened. And Shourie is abusing Dr Ambedkar like anything!"

RELATED LINKS:

Worshipping A False God
Ekalavya and the Worshipping A False God
Dalits will respond to Shourie book in kind