Ode To Br Ambedkar Poem by Ajit Das

A question creeping from within:
Babasaheb, what you've come to be?
Still a messiah for the downtrodden
or just a symbol appropriated
only for narrow electoral gains?

Your statue being built, demolished,
re-erected, painted, re-painted
in opposing colours, now guarded
within an iron enclosure, sends out
a massage scripted in different ink.

This may be the outer manifestation.
But deep churning lies inside
the voice you gave to the oppressed.
It rises above, transcends borders,
resounding everywhere world over.

You instilled among the most vulnerable
a sense of self-respect, a fighting spirit
to take on injustice, a conviction
of being the authors of their own destiny,
yet not to split away, but embrace humanity.