Opposition protests in Parliament against Union Home Minister Amit Shah over Dr BR Ambedkar’s remarks in the Rajya Sabha spilled over into the Uttar Pradesh Assembly on Thursday as SP and Congress MLAs entered the floor of the House accusing the BJP governments at the Center and A situation with an “anti-Dalit mentality”.
As a result, before the Speaker adjourned the House, there was neither question time nor discussion on the supplementary budget and the Mahakumbh.
As the House session began on Thursday, SP MLAs entered the well of the House carrying Ambedkar’s photo and chanted slogans like “Baba Sahab Ka Ye Sharm, Nahi Sahega Hindustan”, “Jai Bheem”.
Taking issue with Amit Shah’s comments, Leader of the Opposition Mata Prasad Pandey said: “This government is disrespecting Ambedkar ji both in Delhi and Lucknow. BJP eke ban jatiwadi parti gayi hai (BJP has become a casteist party). BJP is disrespecting Ambedkar ji. .Wo PDA ke Bhagwan Hai (BJP is insulting Ambedkar, who is the God of PDA).
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Suresh Khanna claimed that this NDA government has given “due respect” to Ambedkar by developing places associated with it.
“NDA not only developed Panch Tirtha, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and CM Yogi Adityanath are working according to the constitution laid down by Ambedkar. They (Congress) changed the preamble of the constitution, and showed great disrespect to Baba Shahab,” Khanna said.
Meanwhile, Speaker Satish Mahana asked the opposition MLAs to return to their seats and said it was important to follow Ambedkar’s teachings of discussing issues of public interest and keeping people’s interest above all else.
However, the SP MLAs continued to raise slogans. Mahana complained that the SP MLAs were holding Ambedkar’s photographs “in different directions”, thereby insulting him. “Using Babasaheb’s picture for personal interest and political agenda is against morality and humanity,” said the speaker. The Speaker adjourned the House a day before the scheduled end of the winter session after the opposition of the SP MLAs did not abate.
Why should you buy our membership?
You want to be the smartest in the room.
You want access to our award-winning journalism.
You don’t want to be confused and misinformed.
Choose your subscription package