NEW DELHI: Two days after Dalit protests erupted across the country, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said his government was treading the path shown by B R Ambedkar and had completed projects in his memory, but the Opposition was allegedly politicising the legacy of the Dalit icon.
“Our government has given the legacy of Ambedkar its rightful place by completing projects sanctioned in his memory. Everyone has been using Ambedkar’s name for political purposes. The NDA government finally completed the Ambedkar International Centre, which was first conceived by the Atal Bihari Vajpayee regime but was delayed by subsequent governments,” Modi said, while inaugurating the Western End complex that will house members of Parliament.
The Prime Minister’s remarks came in the backdrop of the nationwide Dalit protests against the alleged dilution of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act on Monday and Tuesday, which resulted in the deaths of 11 people in central and north India. The Dalit agitation was particularly violent in BJP-ruled Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, which are heading for Assembly elections later this year.
Modi asserted that it was the NDA government led by Vajpayee that began identifying places linked to Ambedkar by way of paying tribute to the chairman of the drafting committee of the Constitution. “We are treading the path shown by Ambedkar, whose core ideals were living in harmony and togetherness. It’s our mission to work for the poorest of the country,” he said.
The Prime Minister’s assertion of being committed to the ideals of Ambedkar came on a day when Opposition MPs in the Rajya Sabha raised slogans of the NDA government being anti-Dalit.
Earlier, in a statement on the Dalit agitation in the Lok Sabha, Union Minister for Home Affairs Rajnath Singh had dismissed the “misinformation surrounding reservation”. BJP chief Amit Shah also rued that the Opposition had been whipping up misinformation campaigns about reservation ahead of every election.