Blue, saffron, blue, the changing colours of Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar

What’s in a colour? Lots, if the shades are identified with political parties.

After facing flak over installing a saffron colour statue of Dalit icon BR Ambedkar, district authorities in Budayun in Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday changed its colour to blue.

The saffron statue, unlike the usual blue, was installed in Dugraiyya village on Monday after the earlier one was vandalised on Saturday.

“The statue which was broken by miscreants on Friday wore a blue jacket, the one erected now has a saffron kurta,” said Akram Khan, the village head on Monday.

“I have never seen an Ambedkar statue in saffron,” he added.

Officials said the new statue was ordered from Agra and the maker had sent its picture to the district authorities. The authorities, in turn, shared it with the villagers. The statue was installed after the approval of the villagers.

Besides Badaun, Ambedkar statues were vandalised in Meerut, Saharanpur, Firozabad, Bulandshahr, Ballia and Allahabad in recent weeks.

In the past, the Lal Bahadur Shastri Bhawan which houses the office of the chief minister was painted saffron and later even the Haj Committee office. The office, however, got back its cream colour after criticism from various quarters.

Saffron is often identified with Bharatiya Janata Party and blue with the Bahujan Samaj Party, with their flag and party symbol both in blue colour.

Ambedkar was in news recently after the state government issued a notification to include “Ramji’ as the middle name in all official communication on the Dalit icon.