JD(U) demands IGNCA chairman's resignation

JD(U) today demanded the "immediate resignation" of Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts (IGNCA) chairman Ram Bahadur Rai for questioning B R Ambedkar's role in framing of the Constitution and describing it as a "myth".
The party's national general secretary Shyam Rajak, in a statement here, also sought "registration of a case" against the chief of IGNCA, a premier government-funded arts centre.
Rajak, who is also the deputy leader of the state Legislative Assembly, saw a "BJP design" behind assertions of IGNCA chief who he alleged is also a "BJP strategist."
"It is the policy of BJP to end constitutional rights given to the Dalits and the backwards and establish 'Manuvad' in the country," he alleged.

Rai, a former ABVP general secretary and now the Chairman of Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts, had said in an interview that Ambedkar merely "corrected" the language as the head of the drafting committee and the assertion that he played a key role in writing the Constitution was a "myth".
"The IGNCA Chairman's assertion that it is a myth ... Is against the Constitution and also an insult to the Dalits and backward communities," he said.
"BJP is trying to befool people by garlanding the statue of Dalit icon B R Ambedkar and lighting agarbatti (incense sticks)," alleged Rajak, a former Bihar minister and prominent Dalit leader of JD(U).

He called upon the Dalits and members of the backward class to unite and protest "BJP's design" and also appealed to Dalit leaders in NDA to "quit" the ruling coalition at the Centre over the issue.