Patna: Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary on Saturday charged RJD president Lalu Prasad with having “insulted” Babasaheb Ambedkar by having a portrait of the Dalit icon placed at his feet.
Addressing a press conference, Choudhary, who is a former state president of the BJP, also played a video clip of the incident that took place when the ex-CM was celebrating his 78th birthday earlier this week.
In the video, the ailing leader can be seen seated on a couch with his feet placed on a sofa nearby. A supporter enters the room carrying the portrait and places it close to Prasad’s feet before greeting the RJD chief.
“This is testimony to the fact that Lalu Prasad holds Dalits in contempt and has no respect for the greatest leader from the depressed classes. He can have even pictures of gods placed at his feet”, alleged Choudhary, who, incidentally, had begun his political career with the RJD more than two decades ago.
The Deputy CM also claimed that the RJD supremo’s “arrogance” had caused old associates like Nitish Kumar and George Fernandes to part ways and “alienated voters belonging to weaker sections”.
The incident also evoked outrage from Dalit leaders in the BJP like cabinet minister Janak Ram and state unit vice president Anamika Paswan, both of whom came out with strongly worded statements.
“The 14 crore people of Bihar are feeling ashamed and the entire family of RJD supremo should tender an apology. The leader cut the cake with a sword which indicates that his party wants to bring back the use of muscle power in public affairs to which the NDA had assiduously put an end”, said Janak Ram.
Anamika Paswan said “Lalu Prasad made no attempt to even hold the portrait in his hands when it was placed at his feet. Earlier, an instance of Babasaheb’s portrait being found in a garbage dump at the RJD office had also come to the fore. This calls the bluff of the RJD supremo who claims to be a champion of Dalits”.
RJD leaders, speaking on condition of anonymity, insisted that what had happened was “not intentional” though they agreed that the party ill-afforded incidents, with just a few months left for assembly polls, which could lead to a Dalit backlash.
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