Saturday, 21 December 2024
Saturday, 21 December 2024
The controversy over who insulted BR Ambedkar continued even on the last day of the Parliament winter session on Friday with an Opposition protest march and demands for Union home minister Amit Shah’s resignation for his remarks on Ambedkar.
The day started with the Opposition MPs staging a protest at Vijay Chowk demanding Shah’s apology and resignation for “insulting” BR Ambedkar. They also carried out a protest march from Vijay Chowk to the Parliament.
The MPs raised slogans such as ‘Jai Bhim’, ‘Amit Shah Maafi Mango’ and ‘istifa do’. Priyanka Gandhi held a placard that read, “Babasaheb ka apman nahi sahega Hindustan”.
Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra claimed the BJP is indulging in distraction as it knows that the country will not tolerate its “insult” of BR Ambedkar.
“The entire country is watching. They have slapped several cases on Rahul Gandhi. They bring in new FIRs and lie...This shows their desperation level… This government is scared of a debate on the Adani issue, they are scared of any debate. They know their real feelings for Ambedkar ji are out in the open and therefore they are afraid of the Opposition because we are raising this issue,” she told reporters in Parliament premises.
The BJP and the Congress MPs jostled it out in Parliament on Thursday over who insulted Ambedkar. BJP MPs Pratap Chandra Sarangi and Mukesh Rajput were injured in the fracas.
The BJP accused Rahul Gandhi of pushing the senior member, a charge rejected by the Congress leader. But the BJP had filed an FIR against Rahul Gandhi at the Parliament Street police station.
The PTI reported on Friday that the police were likely to record the statements of the two injured BJP MPs and may also call Rahul Gandhi for questioning.
Regional leaders, such as Tamil Nadu chief minister M.K.Stalin and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, voiced their opinion on the controversy.
“In consultation with INDIA bloc leaders, a decision will be taken on taking forward the protest against Union Minister Amit Shah for his Ambedkar remarks,” said M.K.Stalin.
Congress general secretary Sachin Pilot on Friday said the BJP’s “mask is off” and it was now out in the open as to what the ruling party felt about the primary architects of the Constitution, and demanded that the entire BJP should apologise over the issue.
Pilot also accused the BJP of staging a “fake drama” outside Parliament’s Makar Dwar on Thursday to divert attention from Shah’s remarks and said video footage of the alleged incident was not being released as the “truth will be revealed”.
“I think it is for the first time we are seeing such sort of behaviour by the ruling dispensation. It is also a fact that all this fake drama is being created to divert the minds of the people from the disgrace that was meted out to Dr. Ambedkar by the BJP and the government of India,” Pilot told PTI.
TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee called for statewide protests on December 23 against the BJP. In a strongly worded statement shared on social media, Banerjee described the comments as an affront to India’s democracy and an attack on the values upheld by the Constitution.
“Our Constitution maker Babasaheb Ambedkar’s insult is unacceptable! This casteist BJP government has repeatedly attacked our democracy,” Banerjee said.
She claimed that the BJP’s actions are exposing its “anti-Dalit” agenda. Terming the remarks as an attack on the “backbone of the Constitution” and a betrayal of Dalit and tribal communities, Banerjee called upon people across West Bengal to join the protests.
The BJP continued with its campaign that it was the Congress who disrespected Ambedkar.
Rajya Sabha MP Kiran Choudhry said that the Congress had been responsible for disrespecting Ambedkar as well as the Constitution.
“You (Congress) have brought Ambedkar to his (Rahul Gandhi) level. When he (Ambedkar) resigned from the cabinet, Nehru said that it won’t make any difference…The truth has been revealed in the public domain and all this is being said to bake political bread,” she said.
“If someone has distorted the Constitution, it was the Congress,” she added.
BJP MP Manoj Tiwari asked whether Rahul Gandhi was comparing himself with BR Ambedkar.
“This is another insult to Baba Saheb by the Congress. This is the same Rahul Gandhi who could tear the ordinance but could not build a memorial for Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar... What rocket science has come that did not exist before?... Rahul Gandhi should be ashamed of comparing himself with Baba Saheb Bhim Rao Ambedkar. You pushed an MP, your team pushed a tribal daughter, and an FIR should have been filed against you... I am an eyewitness to this incident,” he told ANI.
BJP MP from Bhubaneshwar Aparajita Sarangi on Friday gifted a bag with “1984” written on it in red to Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra in the corridor of Parliament. Vadra took the bag from Sarangi and walked on.
The bag had “1984 riots” written on it, said Sarangi, adding this is also an issue that the Congress leader should raise as she makes statements with her tote bags.
This comes days after the Congress MP carried bags with messages on Palestine and Bangladesh written on it to Parliament.
The Janata Dal (United) on Friday accused Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal of not giving representation to Dalits and backward classes, and said a leader tainted with corruption charges has no right to give suggestions to someone like Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar.
The attack came from Union minister Lalan Singh and Sanjay Jha, a day after Kejriwal wrote a letter to Kumar asking him to "deeply reflect" on Shah's alleged insulting comments for BR Ambedkar. Kejriwal had written a similar letter to another key BJP ally, Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu.
"The home minister threw light on those pages of history which you and the leader of your alliance Rahul Gandhi do not want to see. Shah told the country as to how a hurt Ambedkar had to resign from Nehru's Cabinet due to neglect of Dalits and women. I can understand that you and your alliance leader Rahul Gandhi would not have liked such a discussion at all," Jha wrote in the letter.
In Maharashtra, Congress leaders placed photographs of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar on their desks in the Maharashtra assembly amid the party’s allegations that Shah insulted the Dalit icon.
Deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar said Ambedkar belongs to everyone and even the treasury benches should be allowed to display his photographs and urged Speaker Rahul Narwekar to allow him to put a similar photo on his desk.
But the Speaker said he had not allowed any member to put such photographs on their desks and asked the Congress leaders, including Vijay Wadettiwar, Nitin Raut and Nana Patole, to remove the pictures. The Congress leaders didn’t remove the photos in defiance of the Speaker’s message, leading to the members of the ruling Mahayuti also placing Ambedkar’s pictures on their desks. Shiv Sena (UBT) legislators removed them after the Speaker’s objection.
Earlier, on Thursday, Bharatiya Janata Party Yuva Morcha (BJYM) workers vandalised a Congress office in Mumbai, claiming the grand old party had always insulted social reformer Dr Ambedkar. As many as 14 protesters were detained from the spot, police said. Congress MLA Vijay Wadettiwar raised the vandalism Congress office in Mumbai in the assembly.
