Congress president Mallikarjuna Kharge and other senior leaders addressing a press conference at the Congress headquarters in Delhi on December 18, 2024. Photo courtesy: Shivkumar Pushpakar
Stepping up his attack on Amit Shah over his comments about BR Ambedkar, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Wednesday (Dec 18, 2024) said if Prime Minister Narendra Modi has any respect left for Babasaheb, he should sack the home minister if he does not resign. on his own.
Accusing Mr Shah of disrespecting the framers of the Constitution, Mr Kharge said the home minister should apologize to the nation for the “insult” he had given to Ambedkar in his speech in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday (December 17, 2024).
He also warned that people will take to the streets if Shah is not removed from the cabinet. They are ready to die for Babasaheb,’ he said.
Responding to a Rajya Sabha debate on 75 years of the Constitution, Home Minister Shah on Tuesday (17 Dec 2024) criticized the Congress for making it “fashionable” to take Ambedkar’s name for “vote bank politics”. Congress and other opposition parties.
In a press conference held in New Delhi on Wednesday (December 18, 2024), Mr. Kharge said that a person becomes a minister by taking oath of the constitution and if he violates it, he has no right to remain in the cabinet.
“We want Amit Shah to leave his post and if he doesn’t, I want to tell the Prime Minister that if he has even an iota of respect for Babasaheb, he should remove Amit Shah from his post before midnight tonight,” he said.
“If he does not resign, there will be protests across the country. Baba Saheb Ambedkar ji belongs to everyone, because he spoke for every person in the society, including the Dalits, the oppressed and the poor. He had sympathy for everyone,” he said. .
The Congress president said that all the parties raised their issues in the discussion on the constitution in both houses.
“What Amit Shah ji said in Parliament was very despicable and unfortunate. He insulted a Dalit hero whom everyone respects. He insulted Ambedkar to the opposition parties.
A person who spoke “so disparagingly” about Ambedkar Ji should have been removed from the Cabinet, Mr. Kharge said.
“I am bound to say that these people do not respect the Constitution. When they talk about heaven and hell, they talk about the Manusmriti, such things are written there. Their gurus and other founders have spoken like this. It is not. It is their fault, but the school they come from, ” said the Congress leader.
He said that during the two-day debate on the Constitution, BJP MPs tried to portray the Congress and the Gandhi-Nehru family in a bad light.
Mr. Kharge also criticized the Prime Minister over Mr. Shah’s comments, saying that instead of telling the Home Minister that his statement was wrong, Mr. Modi made a series of posts on X to support him.
But then Prime Minister Modi and Home Minister Shah are close friends and they hide each other’s “sins”, the Congress chief said.
In the past BJP-RSS and their leaders claimed that they never respected the Constitution.
“Never accepted the constitution, burned against it. These people did not even wear the tricolor. He said that there is no word of Manusmriti in the constitution, so he will not accept it. They also burned in protest. Effigies of Nehru and Ambedkar,” he claimed.
If the BJP and its leaders had respected Ambedkar, they would never have said such things, Mr. Kharge said.
Criticizing the Congress for repeatedly taking BR Ambedkar’s name, Mr Shah in his remarks on Tuesday (Dec 17, 2024) said that if they had taken God’s name as many times as they could have earned a place in heaven.
It has become a fashion to say ‘Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar.
He also said that the BJP is happy that the Congress has named Ambedkar but the party should also speak about its true feelings towards him.
The Home Minister pointed out how Ambedkar had to resign from the first cabinet in disagreement with the policies of the then Congress-led government, including Article 370.
The home minister also said that most of Ambedkar’s memorials were built after the BJP came to power.
“How fair is it to use the name of someone you oppose in vote bank politics?” Shah asked Kharge.
published – December 18, 2024 at 08:57 pm IST