Dec 23, 2024 08:06 PM IST
Prasad said streets have been named after Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi but no such recognition was given to BR Ambedkar
NEW DELHI: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday renewed its attack on the Congress for its continuing agitation over Union home minister Amit Shah’s comments on BR Ambedkar in Parliament last week.
Senior BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad said the Opposition and the Congress should stop its hypocrisy. “They made him lose polls twice, forced him to quit as law minister and did not confer the Bharat Ratna on him. The Congress needs to stop the hypocrisy,” Prasad said on Monday, demanding the Congress apologise for humiliating Ambedkar during his lifetime and later, his legacy.
The Congress has announced that the party has planned conferences in 150 cities across the country on the controversy around Shah’s speech in the Rajya Sabha. During his reply to the debate marking 75 years of the Constitution last week, Shah attacked the Congress and alleged the opposition party repeatedly disrespected Ambedkar. “It has become a fashion to say Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar…If they had taken God’s name so many times, they would have secured a place in heaven for seven lifetimes…” he said, before going on to add that India’s first law minister was forced to resign from Jawaharlal Nehru’s cabinet.
The INDIA bloc parties shared clips of the first part of his statement, demanding Shah’s resignation and an apology for what they alleged was an insult to the framer of the Constitution.
Prasad said the Congress had forced Ambedkar to resign during the elections, and they made sure he didn’t get a memorial. “Now, Congress is holding a press conference in Ambedkar’s name,” he said, adding that when Ambedkar was resigning, he wasn’t even allowed to speak.
“SC/STs have not been given proper protection. Only Muslims have been given safeguards,” he said.
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