New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said today’s generation should know how Congress has “repeatedly insulted” Babasaheb Ambedkar during and after his lifetime, and tried to erase his contribution in nation building.
“Congress tried its best to remove his name from the country’s history. It’s a bitter fact but today’s generation must know how Congress insulted Babasaheb when he was alive and even after he died. It is also necessary for the new generation to know how Babasaheb exposed the real character of Congress,” he said at his speech at the inauguration of Ambedkar National Memorial at Alipur Road here.
Modi said Ambedkar had resigned from Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru’s cabinet, saying he was not kept in any committee neither in foreign, defence nor in economic committee despite him being a student of economics and financial matters. Further, he was given a ministry that had little work.
Even during a reshuffle, Ambedkar was not given any additional charge, said Modi, adding that Ambedkar had himself said that the “reason why I am disillusioned with the (Nehru’s) government. This is related to the attitude towards the backwards and Dalits”.
Ambedkar further said there was no provision in the Constitution to safeguard the interests of the backwards and even a year since the Constitution was adopted, the government has not even thought of setting up the commission, Modi said, adding even after 70 years. Congress is trying to prevent the OBC Commission getting a constitutional status.
“The person who studied at the world’s best universities was being subjected to humiliation on a minute to minute basis,” he said.
Modi attacked the Congress for limiting the nation’s history to one family and kept out all those who refused to bow before it.
“After independence, Congress created such an ecosystem which made country’s history limited to one family. Those who didn’t bow down to this ecosystem, didn’t find place in the books,” Modi said.
“The truth is, after the death of Babasaheb, Congress even tried to erase his contribution in nation-building. From Nehru to Rajiv Gandhi, Congress conferred everyone with Bharat Ratna, but it never found Babasaheb worthy of becoming India’s ‘ratna’ (precious stone),” he said.
After Ambedkar’s death, the Congress said there was no space for his portrait to be placed in the Central Hall, where he sat drafting the Constitution, discussing the details for hours, said Modi.
It’s the turn of fate that the same Congress is now taking his name to do vote bank politics, he said.
The Prime Minister accused the Congress of misleading the public by spreading rumours.
“Congress can only create confusion… sometimes it is rumour of abolition of reservation, at other time it’s scrapping of the act related to atrocities on SCs and STs. Congress is unflagging in its attempt to cause rift between brothers,” he said.
IANS