Parliament’s winter session is over but the BJP and the Congress have continued accusing each other of insulting and mistreating Bhimrao Ambedkar, persisting with what some Ambedkarites have described as competitive politics to grab Dalit votes.

The BJP on Monday charged the Congress with “hypocrisy” as the main Opposition kept up the pressure on the ruling party over Union home minister Amit Shah’s “insulting” remarks against the architect of the Constitution.

While Congress state units organised media conferences across the country demanding Shah’s resignation, leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi drew attention to the larger issue of protecting the Constitution by visiting the family of Somnath Suryawanshi.

Suryawanshi, a law student, died allegedly of injuries suffered in judicial custody. He was arrested in Parbhani district of Maharashtra earlier this month while protesting against an act of desecration of the Constitution.

After visiting the family, dressed in the Ambedkarite blue T-shirt he has been donning since the controversy broke, Rahul said on X: “The murder of Somnath Suryavanshi is government sponsored. He was a Dalit and was defending the Constitution. People who believed in Manusmriti have taken their lives.”

The reference to the Manusmriti, the ancient text that is said to have codified the caste system and the subordinate role of women, was clearly meant to target the BJP and the wider Sangh Parivar.

The BJP hit back with a media address in Delhi where it repeated the charges it had levelled inside Parliament, portraying the Nehru-Gandhi family as Ambedkar haters.

“The Congress party, which has consistently disrespected, mocked and disgraced Bharat Ratna Dr B.R. Ambedkar, is now pretending to honour him. The Congress is anti-Ambedkar,” BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad said.

“They (the Congress) excluded him from the Constituent Assembly, defeated him in the elections, forced him to resign as law minister and denied him the Bharat Ratna. Today, they are honouring his legacy for nothing but political gain.”

Five Left parties — the CPM, CPI, CPIML, RSP and the All India Forward Bloc — too have decided to organise a nationwide protest on December 30 to demand Shah’s resignation.

The decision came on Sunday at a meeting that took into account the “widespread anger” against Shah’s remarks and emphasised that “neither Amit Shah nor Prime Minister Narendra Modi are willing to own up the responsibility and take remedial action”.

Shah made the controversial remarks in the Rajya Sabha last week while replying to the discussion on 75 years of the Constitution.

“It has become a fashion to say, ‘Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar’. If they took God’s name so many times, they would have got a place in heaven for seven rebirths,” he said.

Prasad on Monday demanded an apology from the Congress for its alleged mistreatment of Ambedkar, which he said started with Jawaharlal Nehru.

“The way Pandit Nehru and the Congress leaders mistreated and insulted Babasaheb, with clear evidence available, the Congress should issue an unconditional apology for their actions,” he said.

“The BJP will expose the Congress party’s full history of hateful attitudes towards Babasaheb by holding news conferences nationwide.”

Prasad repeated the BJP’s pet charge against the Congress — that of the so-called appeasement of Muslims.

“The Muslims alone were provided with adequate protection by the Congress during its rule while the SCs/STs were ignored,” he said.