New Delhi: A massive political row has erupted over Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s remarks about Dr. B.R. Ambedkar during his address in the Rajya Sabha Tuesday. And a day after the Constitution debate concluded in Parliament, the Opposition Wednesday demanded an apology from Shah for allegedly insulting the Dalit icon, with the Congress calling for his resignation.
Raising slogans of ‘Jai Bheem’ and ‘Amit Shah maafi maango’ (Amit Shah, apologise), Congress MPs and other opposition leaders held up portraits of Ambedkar in Parliament. Both Houses of Parliament were adjourned after a ruckus.
Meanwhile, the BJP has accused the Congress of playing cheap politics by circulating a clipped version of Shah’s speech. They also claimed that Congress insulted Ambedkar during his lifetime and was now using edited footage for publicity.
Addressing the Rajya Sabha during Constitution debate Tuesday, Shah had said, “Abhi ek fashion ho gaya hai, ‘Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar’. Itna naam agar bhagwan ka lete, toh saat janmon tak swarg mil jata (it has become fashionable to take Ambedkar’s name. If one were to take god’s name this often, they would have got a place in heaven for several lives).
“Take his name a hundred times more, but I want to understand your true sentiments about him. Why did Ambedkar resign from the first Cabinet? Ambedkar himself stated several times that he was dissatisfied with the treatment of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, and he was unhappy with the government’s policies, particularly its stance on Article 370,” Shah added.
On Tuesday night, Congress’s General Secretary In-Charge Communications Jairam Ramesh shared a video snippet on X from Shah’s speech.
Ramesh wrote, “Amit Shah has said something very disgusting. This shows that the BJP and RSS leaders have a lot of hatred for Baba Saheb Ambedkar”.
“The hatred is such that they are annoyed even by his name. These are the same people whose ancestors used to burn the effigies of Baba Saheb, who themselves used to talk about changing the Constitution given by Baba Saheb,” the Congress leader added.
Defending Shah’s remarks, Amit Malviya, BJP’s National In-charge of Information & Technology, said in a post on X: “This is Congress’s daily drama—wake up in the morning, insult Baba Saheb Ambedkar, spread lies, and repeat this vicious cycle again and again. Insulting the god-like figure of the Dalit community reveals Congress’s deep-seated hatred towards them. The Congress, which has neglected Dalits, has disrespected Ambedkarji since the time of Nehru.”
“The credibility of Congress has become zero. That is why now they have to resort to the politics of spreading confusion. Home Minister Amit Shah’s entire statement exposes the Congress’s hatred towards Baba Saheb Ambedkar and the Dalit community. Listen to the entire speech.”
Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge demanded Shah’s resignation.
“When Amit Shah was talking about Dr BR Ambedkar, he said ‘You people keep taking the name of Ambedkar 100 times, if you took the name of God these many times, you would have gone to heaven 7 times’. This means that taking the name of Baba Saheb Ambedkar is a crime and his intention was to oppose the Constitution made by Babasaheb Ambedkar. I opposed this by raising my hand, but I was not given the opportunity since proceedings of the House on Babasaheb Ambedkar’s constitution were underway, so we decided to remain silent. The insult of Babasaheb by Shah is wrong and I demand his resignation,” Kharge said to reporters outside Parliament.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, too, came to Shah’s defence. He said that the people of the country have seen how “one party” has indulged in dirty tricks to obliterate the legacy of Dr Ambedkar.
In a series of posts on X, Modi said, “In Parliament, Amit Shah Ji exposed the Congress’ dark history of insulting Dr Ambedkar and ignoring the SC/ST Communities. They are clearly stung and stunned by the facts he presented, which is why they are now indulging in theatrics.”
“If the Congress and its rotten ecosystem think their malicious lies can hide their misdeeds of several years, especially their insult towards Dr Ambedkar, they are gravely mistaken!”
If the Congress and its rotten ecosystem think their malicious lies can hide their misdeeds of several years, especially their insult towards Dr. Ambedkar, they are gravely mistaken!
The people of India have seen time and again how one Party, led by one dynasty, has indulged in…
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) December 18, 2024
“The list of the Congress’s sins towards Dr Ambedkar includes getting him defeated in elections not once but twice. Pandit Nehru campaigning against him and making his loss a prestige issue. Denying him a Bharat Ratna. Denying his portrait, a place of pride in Parliament’s Central Hall,” he added.
“Congress can try as they want but they can’t deny that the worst massacres against SC/ST Communities have happened under their regimes. For years, they sat in power but did nothing substantive to empower the SC and ST communities,” the PM wrote.
In the Rajya Sabha, Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar allowed Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju to address the issue.
Rijiju stated that the Congress has repeatedly disrespected B.R. Ambedkar throughout the years. They defeated him in the 1952 elections and later in a by-election from Vidarbha. By defeating such an influential leader, they have tarnished the country’s dignity. This is the point the Home Minister was making, he said
“The Home Minister never disrespected Baba Saheb, but gave him due respect. It was the Congress which humiliated him…. Baba Saheb resigned from the post of Law Minister in 1951. PM Modi made me, who is a Buddhist, the Law Minister of the country. Congress is just doing drama in the name of Ambedkar,” Rijiju added.
Also read: Nadda’s attack on Congress: ‘Secular’ added to preamble to appease minorities, ‘socialist’ for Left
‘Manusmriti worshippers will have scorn towards Ambedkar’
On X, Congress leader and Leader of the Opposition of Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi said that those “who believe in Manusmriti” will definitely be at odds with Ambedkar.
In two different X posts, Kharge lashed out at Shah, saying that Shah “has once again proven that the BJP-RSS were against the tricolour, their forefathers opposed the Ashok Chakra and the people of the Sangh Parivar wanted to implement Manusmriti instead of the Constitution of India from the very first day”.
“The ministers of the Modi government should understand carefully that for crores of people like me, Babasaheb Ambedkar is no less than God… He is and will always be the messiah of Dalits, tribals, backward classes, minorities and the poor,” Kharge said in a post in Hindi on X.
Congress General Secretary K.C. Venugopal echoed this sentiment, adding: “In case you didn’t know, Babasaheb Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar is equivalent to God and the Constitution he drafted is a holy book for crores of people across the world. How dare you speak about Dr. Ambedkar with such disdain?”
“The BJP’s disgust towards Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar was always well known, and the Home Minister’s pathetic statements in the Rajya Sabha today further confirm how much they hate and detest Dr. Ambedkar,” Venugopal wrote in a post on X. “The worshippers of Manusmriti will always have scorn towards Ambedkar, who rejected the horrible ideas espoused by the casteist RSS and their Manusmriti.”
TMC leader and West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, too, posted on X, attacking the BJP’s “casteist” mindset.
“This is a display of BJP’s CASTEIST and ANTI-DALIT mindset. If this is how they behave after being reduced to 240 seats, imagine the damage they would’ve inflicted if their dream of 400 seats had been realised. They’d have rewritten history to entirely erase Dr. Ambedkar’s contributions,” she wrote.
The mask has fallen!
As Parliament reflects on 75 glorious years of the Constitution, HM @AmitShah chose to TARNISH this occasion with DEROGATORY remarks against Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar, that too in the temple of Democracy.
This is a display of BJP’s CASTEIST and ANTI-DALIT…
— Mamata Banerjee (@MamataOfficial) December 18, 2024
