Congress always insulted Dr Ambedkar and made fun of him; it should apologise: Gujarat CM

Ahmedabad, Dec 24 (PTI) Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel on Tuesday accused the Congress of being "anti-Ambedkar", and claimed that it always insulted the father of the Indian Constitution, made fun of him and tried to belittle him.

The Congress denied Bharat Ratna to Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar and was always busy glorifying members of one family, he said in a video statement, adding that the party should apologise to the country.

The CM also said that the opposition party's attack on Union minister Amit Shah for his recent comments on Dr Ambedkar was "without a basis or context" and it brings out its "hypocrisy".

In the video statement, he said, "Congress party has always insulted Babasaheb Ambedkar, made fun of him and tried to belittle him. For this, Congress party should unconditionally apologise to the entire country." Attacking the Congress over its nation-wide press conference on the issue of the Union Home Minister Shah's comments on Ambedkar in Parliament, Patel said it defeated Ambedkar in the Lok Sabha election in 1952, and in a by-election in 1954.

"The Congress forced Ambedkar to resign as the law minister of the country and even denied him 'Bharat Ratna, the country's highest civilian award, and did not let even a memorial be built in his name," Patel said.

On the other hand, the Narendra Modi government converted into memorials his house in London, his residence in Delhi as well as Deeksha Bhoomi in Nagpur and Chaitya Bhoomi in Mumbai, the BJP leader said.

"Congress did not take any steps to set up his Smruti Smarak (memorial) and only created hurdles. On the other hand, it named hundreds of buildings, hospitals and roads after Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Sanjay Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi," he said.

"The press conferences organised by the Congress across the country today for Babasaheb Ambedkar is hypocrisy. It is a poor effort to make a political issue out of a small part of Amit Shah's speech by presenting it without any basis or context. People of the country are very intelligent and understand it all," he said.

Congress did not honour Ambedkar with Bharat Ratna, Padma Vibhushan or even Padma Bhushan. On the other hand, the man who defeated Ambedkar in the election, Narayan Sadoba Kajrolkar was honoured with Padma Vibhushan in 1970, and the then PM Jawaharlal Nehru even campaigned for him, Patel alleged.

"This is the Congress party's truth. The BJP will put before the public the entire picture of Congress party's stand against Ambedkar and his ideology. The BJP believes that all those who contributed to nation building need to be honoured. But Congress is only busy glorifying one family," he said.

"BJP even honours its staunch opponents because they have in their own way contributed to nation building. For Congress, only one family is everything. Congress should stop the drama," he said. PTI KA PD NP