NEW DELHI, 14 Apr: The birth anniversary of Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, whose political influence has surged with the passage of time, on Monday was marked by bitter trading of charges between the ruling BJP and opposition parties as they fought for his legacy.
\nPrime Minister Narendra Modi accused the Congress of turning the deprived sections of society into second-class citizens during its long stint in power and asserted that his government is being guided by Ambedkar’s vision.
\nCongress president Mallikarjun Kharge claimed that the Modi government pays mere lip service to him, and reiterated the demand for a caste survey to push social justice.
\nWhile Modi led the BJP’s charge on its rivals and its push to be identified as the champion of constitutional values espoused by Ambedkar, hailed as the architect of the Constitution, Kharge alleged the BJP-RSS were his “enemies.”
\nAssailing Modi over his criticism of the Congress’ treatment of Ambedkar, Kharge cited a letter by him in which he blamed SA Dange and VD Savarkar for his defeat in the elections of 1952. The BJP has often accused the Congress of ensuring Ambedkar’s defeat in the Lok Sabha elections in 1951-52.
\nSpeaking to reporters, Kharge reiterated his party’s demand for a nationwide caste survey, as well as implementation of reservation for scheduled castes (SC), scheduled tribes (ST) and other backward classes (OBC) in private academic institutions, asserting that the Constitution gives them the right of social, economic and political justice.
\nThe prime minister travelled to Haryana to launch multiple development schemes in Hisar and Yamuna Nagar as he emphasised that his government’s welfare schemes and push for industrialisation is guided by Ambedkar’s vision.
\n“Babasaheb Ambedkar wanted to bring equality but the Congress spread the virus of vote bank (politics) in the country. He wanted every poor person to live with dignity, with heads held high, to dream and fulfil them. But the Congress made the SCs, STs and OBCs second-class citizens,” he said, and cited the Waqf (Amendment) Act as a step towards social justice.
\nSharpening his attack on the main opposition, Modi alleged that the Congress turned the pious Constitution “into a weapon to gain power.”
\nDuring the Congress’ years-long rule, water reached the swimming pools of party leaders but tap water did not reach villages, he claimed. “Even 70 years after independence, only 16 percent of homes in villages had tapwater… Who was most affected by this? It was the SCs, STs and OBCs.”
\nModi highlighted that his government built 11 crore toilets and said that the SCs, STs and OBCs had to face a lot of difficulties earlier due to a lack of toilets.
\nEven banks were not open for SCs, STs and backward classes, and availing of insurance and loans was a dream for them, Modi claimed, asserting that these communities are the biggest beneficiaries of the Jan Dhan scheme.
\nHe said, “The Congress insulted Babasaheb when he was alive and he was twice defeated in elections. The then Congress government wanted to throw him out.”
\nIn his comments, Kharge highlighted the need for a central law for the SC\/ST sub-plan and guaranteed budgetary allocations, in accordance with their population.
\nHe stressed the need to remove the 50 percent cap on reservations.
\nThe Congress president again pushed for a separate quota for SC, ST and OBC women under the women’s reservation bill, which was passed in September 2023.
\n“The Modi government takes the name of Ambedkar but is not ready to fulfil his aspirations and wishes. It only pays lip service,” he said.
\nMayawati, a former Uttar Pradesh chief minister and supremo of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) – a party long identified with Dalits but whose political fortunes have tumbled – said the “social, economic and political conditions of the Bahujans in the country are as pathetic in the BJP rule as in the Congress rule.”
\nSamajwadi Party president and former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav joined other parties in lauding Ambedkar and projecting his outfit as the true champion of his ideals.
\nHe urged people to unite to strengthen the “PDA” movement to save the Constitution, a swipe at the BJP.
\nThe “PDA” acronym coined by Yadav refers to a combination of ‘Pichhde (backward classes)’, Dalits and ‘Alpasankhyak (minorities)’.
\nMadhya Pradesh Chief Minister and BJP leader Mohan Yadav accused the Congress of historically harbouring a “feeling of hostility” towards Ambedkar and demanded an apology from the party.
\nCoinciding with Ambedkar’s birth anniversary, the Congress government in Telangana issued an order on the implementation of SC categorisation, making it the first state in the country to do so, Irrigation Minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy said.
\nThe categorisation is aimed at ensuring that the more disadvantaged communities among SCs benefit from reservation as it has been alleged that its benefits are mostly cornered by socially and economically more empowered sections.
\nBorn in a Dalit family in 1891, Ambedkar was a brilliant student who went on to study abroad and made a mark for his scholarship in economics and law, and his passionate championing of the interests of Dalits at a time when the community was at the margins of social and political influence. The discrimination he suffered in Indian society turned him into a committed social reformer. (PTI)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NEW DELHI, 14 Apr: The birth anniversary of Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, whose political influence has surged with the passage of time, on Monday was marked by bitter trading of charges between the ruling BJP and opposition parties as they fought for his legacy. Prime Minister Narendra Modi accused the Congress of turning the deprived sections […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-262537","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-national"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=262537"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262537\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=262537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=262537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=262537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}