After a statement by Amit Shah referring to Dr BR Ambedkar triggered a political storm, Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad Yadav on Thursday said that the home minister should renounce politics and leave.
“Amit Shah has gone mad. He has a hatred for Babasaheb Ambedkar. We condemn this madness of his,” Lalu Yadav told reporters. “Babasaheb Ambedkar is great. He (Shah) should renounce politics and leave.”
Besides Lalu Yadav, former Bihar deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav also criticised Shah for his speech and accused him and his party of being “anti-constitution”.
“Babasaheb Ambedkar is our fashion and passion. He is also our motivation and inspiration. We will not let anyone insult Babasaheb Ambedkar,” Tejashwi Yadav was quoted as saying by ANI on Wesneday. “These people are anti-constitution who spread hatred, and the language used in Parliament is condemnable.”
What Amit Shah said
Amit Shah, in his address in the Rajya Sabha after a two-day discussion on 75 years of the Constitution on Tuesday, said the Congress had made it a fashion to take Ambedkar’s name.
“Abhi ek fashion ho gaya hai – Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar. Itna naam agar bhagwan ka lete to saat janmon tak swarg mil jata (It has become a fashion to say Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar’. If they had taken God’s name so many times, they would have got a place in heaven),” Shah said.
The attack, which came from almost all opposition parties, including Congress, TMC, DMK, RJD, Left parties, and Shiv Sena-UBT, led to the adjournment of both Houses of Parliament on Wednesday even prompted the BJP, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to defend Amit Shah.
Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said Prime Minister Narendra Modi should sack Union home minister Amit Shah if he had “any respect left” for Ambedkar, even as opposition members disrupted proceedings in both Houses of Parliament and shared clips of the first part of Shah’s statement.
Modi, on the other hand, attacked the Congress, saying the opposition party had indulged “in every possible dirty trick to obliterate the legacy of Dr Ambedkar and humiliate the SC/ST communities.” Shah also said that his statement was distorted to create an “illusion” that he insulted Ambedkar.
