A large number of MPs of Lok Sabha today participated in a business sitting held at Parliament House in New Delhi in which Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi was actively involved in dealings with MPs.
It was in a bid to discuss the sustained political fallout that has followed some recent comments by Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Babasaheb Ambedkar.
The Congress party used the social media platform x which was earlier called twitter to make the announcement and said, “Important meeting with the Lok Sabha MPs with leader of opposition Rahul Gandhi at Parliament House, New Delhi.”
It was a part of a series of organized protests and meetings aimed at uniting the opposition MPs especially the MP members of the INDIA Bloc, who organized a protest demanding resignation of Amit Shah.
Earlier in the day, many of the MPs from the INDIA Bloc were dressed in blue – Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Sanjay Raut, Mahua Majhi, and Ram Gopal Yadav were among those who got up.
This co-ordination act was supposed to signify their resentment over Shah’s comments on Ambedkar. The MPs also protested inside the parliament precincts demanding that; Shah apologize and resign from the position of Home minister.
The protest raised its tempo as the MPs of the INDIA Bloc were heading to Makar Dwar and again demanding for the resignation of Shah. The statements made by Amit Shah prompted a stir, especially within the opposition MPs, who considered that Shah’s statement offended one of the most important figures of India.
Shah had said it is the fashion for Congress to at least pronounce the name Ambedkar now and again and if they had been uttering the name of God they would have got ‘seven lives in heaven’.
Reacting to Shah’s statement, Shiv Sena (UBT) spokesman Sanjay Raut condemned the statement terming it as an insult to Marathi people and demanded him to apologise.
Raut said if Shah had made a spelling blunder, he should say sorry pointing out that it is an insult to refer to Ambedkar as a human rather than a god in Indian society.
‘It is not a crime to apologise over Dr Ambedkar’. He is a personality that has a God like status. The man who gave dignity to the backward of the country is like God, much less is greater than him. You have used wrong words for him. So, apologise,” Raut said.
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, a Congress MP also stirred the tweet about the BJP illustration of no respect for Ambedkar, known as the maker of India constitution.
Responding to the media, Priyanka Gandhi lambasted the BJP for the actions they have taken, addressing the exhibiting of common alterations made on Ambedkar’s photograph by BJP folks on social media platform.
She shook her finger at disrespect of the leader and said ‘the BJP says one thing yet does something entirely different.’
Priyanka also said, “This is a mindset that vandalises the statue of Babasaheb.” Who will trust them? They spend time telling the nation they do not wish to abolish reservation, or alter the Constitution.
They don’t possess minimum courtesy; ‘he’ is the maker of the Constitution (Babasaheb Ambedkar). They say of him: I am not saying this about him.
The demand for an apology over Amit Shah’s comments brought protests in both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday where members of the opposition demonstrated against the comments made by Shah.
Over time, the protests led to suspension of both Houses of Parliament as Congress and other opposition parties took up the issue of Shah’s statement.
The political theatrics increased more as the Congress demanded the resignation of Amit Shah and PM Narendra Modi and at the same time the BJP leaders countered the attack responding that the opposition party is politicizing the matter.
This emerging conflict is reflective of the existing cleavages in the politics of India with specific respect to the leadership of Ambedkar and on the debate on the constitution.
On its part, the Congress and the opposition parties have not tried pressing the BJP for an appraisal over the disrespect they alleged was given to Ambedkar, an argument the ruling party has refuted claiming there was no disrespect intended towards the historical figure, saying that the protests are purely political.
The presence of the offender in the streets keeps the problem in the spotlight in the ongoing political struggle between the opposition and the ruling party without a solution to the conflict.
The respect towards Ambedkar or lack of it for that matter and his efforts in drafting Indian Constitution shall continue to make headlines in the build-up to next general elections.
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