Union Home Minister Amit Shah was attacked by the Congress on Tuesday for his comments about BR Ambedkar in Parliament and was called upon to issue an apology. “It has become a ‘fashion’ for the Congress party to use Ambedkar’s name,” Shah remarked in his speech to the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday, the last day of a two-day debate on the 75th anniversary of the Constitution.
“Abhi ek fashion ho gaya hai – Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar. Itna naam agar bhagwan ka lete to saat janmon tak swarg mil jata (It has become a fashion to say Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar’. If they had taken God’s name so many times, they would have got a place in heaven),” Shah said, taking a swipe at the opposition.
The home minister stated that although the BJP is pleased that the Congress is using Ambedkar’s name, the party need to express its true feelings about him as well. Shah was criticised for the comments by a number of Congress leaders, including Mallikarjun Kharge, the president of the Congress, and Rahul Gandhi, the leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha.
Gandhi stated that anyone who adhere to Manusmriti will undoubtedly disagree with Ambedkar in a post on X. According to Kharge, the home minister’s “insult” of Babasaheb Ambedkar “has once again proven that the BJP-RSS were against the tricolour, that their forefathers opposed the Ashok Chakra, and that the people of the Sangh Parivar wanted to implement Manusmriti instead of the Constitution of India from the very beginning.” “Babasaheb Dr Ambedkar Ji did not allow this to happen, that is why there is so much hatred towards him,” Kharge wrote in a post on X. “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.”
Jairam Ramesh, a Congress MP, called Shah’s comments “very disgusting” and claimed they demonstrated the BJP-RSS’s animosity against 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 said.
“They are now irritated with those who take Baba Saheb’s name because the people taught them a lesson,” he stated. “A disgrace! Ramesh claimed that Amit Shah need to apologise to the nation for this.
Congress general secretary in-charge organisation K C Venugopal also hit out at Shah over his remarks. “HM Amit Shah, 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?” he wrote on X. “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 said. “The worshippers of Manusmriti will always have scorn towards Ambedkar, who rejected the horrible ideas espoused by the casteist RSS and their Manusmriti,” he added.
