India, June 8 -- Around five years ago, on December 6, 2020, a senior Shiv Sena minister led the ground-breaking ceremony of what was to be a world-class study and research centre on the legacy of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, founder of India's Dalit movement and architect of the Indian Constitution, at the Kalina campus of the University of Mumbai. The event, presided over by then minister for higher and technical education and currently industries minister, Uday Samant, was conducted with much fanfare and attended by then chief minister, Uddhav Thackeray.

The centre was to be the go-to research academy for scholars, faculty and students from all over the world, anyone who wanted to immerse themselves in the life and work of Dr Ambedkar. It a...