BJP, Opposition leaders lock horns over Amit Shah's Ambedkar comment

Kharge demands home minister's resignation; protests disrupt House proceedings

Almost all prominent Opposition leaders, including chief ministers, on Wednesday criticised Union Home Minister Amit Shah for his remarks on BR Ambedkar, with Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge demanding that Prime Minister Narendra Modi sack Shah from the Council of Ministers. Protests over the issue disrupted proceedings in Parliament.

 

As the Opposition mounted its attack, the PM, in a series of posts on X, defended Shah. Later in the day, addressing a press conference, Shah accused the Congress of twisting facts and distorting his comments in the Rajya Sabha related to Ambedkar after BJP leaders "exposed" the Opposition party's repeated "insults" to the architect of the Constitution.

 

 

On Kharge’s demand that the PM should sack him, Shah said the Congress president has acted under Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's pressure to be part of this "malicious" campaign against him by distorting his views on Ambedkar. In his posts on X, the PM said the home minister in his Rajya Sabha speech exposed the Congress’ "dark history of insulting" the architect of the Constitution. "They (the Congress) are clearly stung and stunned by the facts he (Shah) presented, which is why they are now indulging in theatrics. Sadly, for them, people know the truth," Modi said.

 

The criticism of Shah from the Opposition leaders, including West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, her Tamil Nadu counterpart M K Stalin, Rahul Gandhi, Shiv Sena (UBT)’s Uddhav Thackeray, Rashtriya Janata Dal’s Tejashwi Yadav, and the Left parties, among others, was sustained throughout the day. Trinamool Congress’s Rajya Sabha MP Derek O'Brien submitted a notice to move a privilege motion against Shah in the Rajya Sabha.

 

In the concluding speech of the discussion in the Rajya Sabha on 75 years of the Constitution, Shah said on Tuesday evening: "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).

 

There were protests against Shah’s remarks not just in Parliament but in Delhi, which is scheduled for Assembly polls in February, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. In Delhi, Aam Aadmi Party convenor Arvind Kejriwal led hundreds of supporters to protest outside the BJP office.

 

Banerjee alleged that Shah's remarks displayed BJP's "casteist and anti-Dalit mindset".

 

Stalin said, "Only those who commit more sins should be concerned about 'punya' (good deeds). Those who are concerned about the country, its people and the protection of the Constitution, will only utter the name of Babasaheb Dr Ambedkar and they will have to utter only his name."

 

Thackeray said Shah's remarks show the BJP's "arrogance" and demanded that the PM take action against his home minister.