New Delhi: The ruling National Democratic Alliance and opposition MPs clashed over B.R. Ambedkar’s legacy on the second consecutive day of the parliamentary debate on 75 years of the Constitution, with both charging the other with undermining Ambedkar and the Constitution that he had drafted.
Opening the second day’s debate, parliamentary affairs and law minister Kiren Rijiju took potshots at the Congress, saying Ambedkar’s ideas and writings were “misinterpreted” after his death and that he was not given his due by the Congress.
Citing the resignation letter that Ambedkar had written to then prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, Rijiju said that he resigned from the cabinet as he was frustrated at not being given an economic ministry or made part of a cabinet committee.
“He wrote to Nehru that he does not want to remain in the cabinet just as an ornament,” Rijiju said, adding that Ambedkar wanted to return to the Lok Sabha a second time but the Congress conspired to deny him a second term.
Rijiju went on to say that Congress governments had given two of their prime ministers—Nehru and Indira Gandhi—the Bharat Ratna, but it was only in 1990, under the V.P. Singh government, that Ambedkar received the award.
On the caste system, Rijiju said Nehru and Ambedkar had different approaches. He argued that while Ambedkar’s views were systematic and addressed the root of problems, Nehru’s views were progressive but underestimated the depth of the issue.
Rijiju said that unlike the Congress, the Bharatiya Janata Party had given Ambedkar the respect due to him, from developing his birthplace as a tourist spot to constructing a 430-foot statue of him in Mumbai, due to be completed in 2026.
‘You will change Constitution, bring Hindu rashtra’
A. Raja of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, a constituent of the opposition INDIA bloc, however, said that Rijiju’s speech and those of other BJP leaders like Rajnath Singh the previous day were “hypocritical” in light of the party’s past actions.
He said, “Ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, the vice president of your party told the media that if you get more than 400 seats, then you will change the Constitution and make the country a Hindu rashtra.” His statement led to vehement protests from the treasury benches.
Raja went on to say that Ambedkar was clear on three terms—constitution, constitutionalism and constitutionality. He also talked about the Kesavananda Bharati case, which established the doctrine that the ‘Basic Structure’ of the Constitution cannot be amended by Parliament.
The DMK leader said that out of the entire Constitution, nobody is competent to touch the six elements of the ‘Basic Structure’, which are democracy, secularism, rule of law, equality, federalism and judicial impartiality. “Now, in new regime, all six elements are gone,” he said.
Raja also referred to the case of Father Stan Swamy, the Jesuit priest and tribal rights activist who was incarcerated in connection with Bhima Koregaon case and died in jail in 2021 at the age of 84, after having been denied bail on medical grounds several times. “Father Stan stood for the rights of the tribals in the country but he died in jail…. This is your democracy.”
He also said that Hindutva ideologue V.D. Savarkar had advocated the two-nation theory—the idea that Hindus and Muslims were two separate nations who should have separate homelands—which Ambedkar did not accept.
Talking about another element of ‘Basic Structure’, Raja asked, “What is the rule of law in the country? Consider the Manipur issue, Bilkis Bano rape case, wrestlers sexual abuse case.”
Vijay Kumar Hansdak, a Jharkhand Mukti Morcha MP, also accused the BJP of creating an Emergency-like situation in India, and also asserted that privatisation is taking away the rights of oppressed castes and tribes.
“This is not the spirit of our Constitution. This government cannot directly end reservation, so it is using these ‘backdoor’ methods to do so,” Hansdak said.
‘Katchatheevu given away’
The BJP’s Tejasvi Surya on his part slammed both the Congress and the DMK over Katchatheevu, an uninhabited island formerly claimed by both India and Sri Lanka before the Indira Gandhi government recognised it as Sri Lankan territory in 1974. The BJP had raised the issue ahead of the Lok Sabha elections this year, with the prime minister accusing the Congress of “callously” giving away the island.
“A very strategically important island in the Palk Strait in the southern part of the country between India and Sri Lanka, the island called Katchatheevu, was given away to Sri Lanka by the Congress party and the DMK in 1974 without following any due process envisioned in the Constitution,” Surya said.
Surya claimed that when Nehru was once asked about this, the first prime minister said that he attached no importance at all to this “little island” and he would have no hesitation in giving up India’s claim to it.
He went on to say that Katchatheevu was not the first time Congress had ceded territory, referring to the Chinese occupation of territory in Aksai Chin.
“And more recently, it was learnt that the UPA government was ready to even give away Siachen to Pakistan. This is their commitment to the territorial integrity of this country,” he alleged.
