BHUBANESWAR : As the BJP deployed its chief ministers to launch a coordinated counterattack on the Congress over Union Home minister Amit Shah’s remarks on Babasaheb Ambedkar, Odisha CM Mohan Charan Majhi on Tuesday asked the grand old party to tender an apology to the people of the country for having historically insulted Ambedkar.
Addressing a media conference here, Majhi lashed out at the Congress for misinterpreting the statement of Shah on Ambedkar during a debate in Rajya Sabha and said it was an agenda of the ‘tool kit’ gang of the party to divide the society.
The chief minister said Congress from Jawaharlal Nehru era has always worked against Ambedkar. “The Congress fielded its candidate against Ambedkar in the 1952 and 1954 Lok Sabha elections and many senior Congress leaders including Nehru campaigned against him during that time,” he said.
Stating that Congress always belittled Ambedkar even when he was in the Nehru ministry, the chief minister said, “In a letter to Dr BC Ray after Ambedkar’s resignation from the cabinet, Nehru had said it would not affect the party. Congress had not even taken any initiative to set up a memorial of such a great leader,” Majhi said.
“In contrast, the BJP has always respected Ambedkar. Former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee established a memorial for Ambedkar at his birthplace in Madhya Pradesh. Similarly, Prime Minister Narendra Modi opened an Ambedkar Centre in Delhi,” Majhi said, highlighting the BJP’s consistent respect for great personalities of the country.
The chief minister said the then Congress government had awarded Padma Bhushan to Narayan Sadoba Kajrolkar who defeated Ambedkar in the elections in 1970. But it never thought of giving Padma award to Ambedkar. “It is a strange situation where Congress criticises and accuses others of insulting Ambedkar while Nehru himself disrespected him,” Majhi said.