Nehru denied Bharat Ratna to Ambedkar, says Union Minister Pralhad Joshi

The Union minister also alleged that Jawaharlal Nehru felt an inferiority complex vis-a-vis Ambedkar.
Jawaharlal Nehru
Jawaharlal Nehru
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THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: BJP leader and Union Minister Pralhad Joshi on Friday accused former PM Jawaharlal Nehru of denying Bharat Ratna to B R Ambedkar. “However, the Congress government awarded Padma Bhushan to Kajrolkar Narayanarao Sadoba who defeated Ambedkar twice in the Lok Sabha election. It was after the pressure put by the BJP on the VP Singh government which it was supporting that Bharat Ratna was awarded to Ambedkar,” he said.

The Union minister was inaugurating the ‘Constitution Pride Day’ organised by the district BJP leadership. The programme was organised as part of the BJP national leadership’s decision to counter the campaign of Congress against BJP that it was working against the Constitution.

The Union minister also alleged that Jawaharlal Nehru felt an inferiority complex vis-a-vis Ambedkar. “In the first interim cabinet led by Nehru, Ambedkar was not included. It was after the insistence of Mahatma Gandhi that Ambedkar was included in the cabinet. However, Ambedkar was the first to resign from the cabinet. In the 1952 election when Ambedkar contested from Bombay, Nehru travelled to the state twice to campaign against the former. It was the Nehru- SK Patil- SA Dange partnership that had worked against Ambedkar. However, they are now accusing that the BJP is against Ambedkar,” he said.

Pralhad Joshi also alleged that after the death of Ambedkar his body was not allowed to be cremated in New Delhi by Nehru and it was taken to Mumbai.

Nehru also denied funds to build any memorial for Ambedkar. In 1961 Nehru stood against the implementation of reservation. “In a letter sent to the chief ministers of various states, he reportedly said that he disliked any form of reservation. The Nehru-Gandhi family always stood against reservation. Rajeev Gandhi in his two-hour speech in Lok Sabha took a stance against reservation,” he added.

Retired Judge M R Hariharan Nair, Central University former VC G Gopakumar, BJP state president K Surendran, and district president V V Rajesh also spoke on the occasion.

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