Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar

It is reported that Ambedkar gave 3 cautions immediately after the Constitution was adopted in January 1950

The experience of last 69 years of which I have been alive for 66, tells me the following.

The socialistic pattern of development set by Nehru was the need of the hour then. It helped people like me acquire high quality education and climb into upper middle classes, like hundreds of millions of my fellow countrymen.
The less than towering personality that was Indira, took many paranoiac and short-termic decisions which changed the course of our social dialogs and economic growth trajectory.

Less than desirable growth rates, the Hindu rate of growth of 3%, slowed down the uplift of many poor: a direct cause of rise of Violent Maoism (Naxalism). I have faced the heat personally.

There goes the first caution from Ambedkar of not using violent means.

The second caution Re-Hero worship : Kindly appreciate that hero worship is a given for most ordinary mortals like us, the mango people. Be it a film star, a sports star, a politician; for that matter, anyone who can do us a favor, or give us a leg-up.

The problem starts when people in power, the likes of Barua vis-a-vis Indira Gandhi or more recently, Venkaiah Naidu, vis-a-vis Narendra Modi, indulge in mindless or opportunistic hero worship. Agreed, dictatorships are then not far.
On the other hand any organization, in different phases, requires different kinds of leadership, from revolutionary, disruptive to merely status quoist. That holds for commercial and social organizations. Should it hold true for a country, I am not sure.

We have been thru or stumbled thru or even prospered thru many phases of hero worship.
At another level, I feel that hero worship is part of human nature. But it's deleterious effects Ambedkar alludes to can only be controlled by institutional mechanisms. Institutions, also grow mature and strengthen over time.
Is 69 years a long time in the life of a nation and have our institutions matured enough to exert countervailing and balancing forces.
I believe the answer has to be optimistic and hopeful.

Now, coming to the last issue of social democracy underpinning the political democracy, again the answer is positive, optimistic and very hopeful.
Rohit Vemulla, Kanhaiya Kumar studying at doctoral level in the premier universities of the country are a proof in point: Sangh fringe and Smriti Irani notwithstanding.