Mainstream media has almost sold out barring some exceptions, said Dalit scholar Anand Teltumbde on Saturday.
A leading intellectual, Mr. Teltumbde was speaking at a public meeting organised by online legal opinion forum The Leaflet at the Constitution Club here on the occasion of the launch of its Marathi edition on the eve of the 128th birth anniversary of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar. The edition was launched by Rajendra Pal Gautam, Minister for Social Welfare and SC&ST affairs.
“Mainstream media has almost sold out barring some exceptions. Dr. Ambedkar wanted caste to be annihilated. Today, I don’t see any anti-caste movement. In fact, a section of Ambedkarites never wanted annihilation of caste...all kinds of things are attributed to Ambedkar on social media,” he said. Senior advocate Indira Jaising argued Article 17 in the Constitution wasn’t enough to eradicate untouchability from the society. “It was only after the agitation of lawyers from SC/ST community that a portrait of Dr. Ambedkar was put in place in the Supreme Court,” she said.
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Meanwhile, the online legal opinion forum launched a Marathi edition on the occasion with Vira Sathidar, a cultural-political activist, as its Editor. Mr. Sathidar has been working for several decades with social movements and part of the Oscar-nominated film