A debate broke out in Madhya Pradesh when BR Ambedkar’s photograph took the place of Jawaharlal Nehru’s, the country’s first prime minister, behind the speaker’s chair. Claiming that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is involved in a “conspiracy” to alter history, the Congress announced that its members will bring up the issue in the House. The Congress also expressed their support for the installation of BR Ambedkar’s portrait but disagreed that Jawaharlal Nehru’s should be removed.
“It was a conspiracy of the BJP to change history. We welcome the move to install the poster of BR Ambedkar but it is highly objectionable that they removed the picture of Nehru. Nehru was a freedom fighter and his contribution towards India can’t be ignored like that. We will raise a demand to put a poster of Nehru again in the House,” Congress MLA Ajay Singh said.
The 16th Madhya Pradesh parliament convened for its first session on Monday. Pro tem Speaker Gopal Bhargava welcomed the newly elected members to the house and initiated the oath-taking procedure. The four-day winter session commenced nearly a week after a new BJP government under Chief Minister Mohan Yadav took office.
Principal secretary of the MP Legislative Assembly AP Singh stated that Jawaharlal Nehru’s image was removed due to its poor condition. He claimed that the choice to display BR Ambedkar’s poster belonged to the former Speaker.
“Previous speaker Girish Gautam decided to change the posters in July of this year since they were in poor condition. He declared, “It was his idea to hang a poster of BR Ambedkar, the Father of the Indian Constitution, in the House.
On Monday, CM Mohan Yadav, Leader of Opposition (LoP) Umang Singhar, deputy chief ministers Jagdish Devda, Rajendra Shukla, former CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Narendra Singh Tomar, Kailash Vijayvargiya, Prahlad Patel and Jayant Maliya (all four from BJP) and Ajay Singh (Congress) took oath as MLAs of 16th Assembly.