Dr. B. R. Ambedkar Memorial Lecture – 2013 was delivered by Dr. Raja Sekhar Vundru, Joint Secretary, Dept. of Pharmaceuticals, Ministry of Chemicals & Fertilizers, Government of India on Sunday, 14th April, 2013 at Ambedkar Auditorium in the University of Hyderabad (UoH) campus.
In his lecture titled, ‘Political Representation and Electoral System in India: Dr. Ambedkar’s Role‘, Dr. Raja Shekar Vundru analyzed the issue of political representation of depressed classes represented by Dr. B. R. Ambedkar. He said that Dr. Ambedkar questioned the representative character of the electoral system developed by the British. Later, this was continued by the congress against which Dr. Ambedkar demanded for separate electorate. Dr. Vundru historically analyzed the development of the electoral system and argued for an alternative electoral system as demanded by Dr.Ambedkar.
Finally Dr. Vundru summarized that the present political representation of the Dalit’s is not adequate and is further not fulfilling the vision of Dr. Ambedkar.
Prof. Ramakrishna Ramaswamy, VC, UoH presided.
Dr. Raja Sekhar Vundru is an Indian Administrative Service officer presently working as Joint Secretary to the Government of India. He is an alumnus of University of Hyderabad and received M.Sc in Life Sciences in 1986. He moved to JNU, New Delhi, attended M.Phil/Ph.D Programme in Environmental Sciences 1986-90 and secured CSIR, UGC and GATE Fellowships. Later he joined IAS in 1990 in the Haryana Cadre. Dr.Vundru has served in various capacities including District Collector, Director Information Technology, Secretary PWD and Director, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment. He finished his Ph.D in 2011 on Constitutional Law from the National Law School of India University, Benguluru.
You can read the entire lecture on http://uohyd.ac.in/images/news/ambedkar_lecture.pdf