NEW DELHI: Dalit leader
Prakash Ambedkar said on Monday the "Congress should be left alone" because the party has failed to emerge from its 'Sultanate' mode.
Speaking on the sidelines of an event in which Ambedkar blamed right-wing Hindu activist
Sambhaji Bhide and
Milind Ekbote for inciting the Bhima-Koregaon violence on January 1 and 2 this year, Ambedkar said the Congress's failure to look beyond appeasing major castes in every state had led to smaller caste groups craving recognition being antagonised. "Congress is not ready to listen, accommodate or recognise groups that are craving recognition. They are still going on with the old system of major caste being the basis of their politics. This played a role and worked in the 70s through to the 90s, but these major castes are now marginalised," he said.
On Monday, commenting on the internal split within the CPM, Ambedkar said the presence of the CPM units in almost all states of the country gave them the manoeuvrability to "bring all opposition parties together." He said, "Left has very little space in state politics. So it can play a role of bringing together parties without being a competitor. Their presence in almost all states gives them the manoeuvrability to bring all the opposition parties together. They can play facilitators in states where their presence is not big."
The grandson of BR Ambedkar on Monday also termed right-wing leader Sambhaji Bhide, 85, who heads Shiv Pratishthan Hindustan, as the next "Hafiz Saeed of India", referring to the leader of Pakistan-based terror group
Lashkar-e-Taiba. "The same way in which Hafiz Saeed has gained legitimacy in Pakistan, where he is above the law and Pakistan can do little to contain him, Hindu fringe groups are gaining ground and becoming bigger than the law of the land," Ambedkar said, adding that this was evident in the Maharashtra government's failure to arrest Bhide and Ekbote.
Saying that the Maharashtra Bandh was withdrawn at 3pm and that the Mumbai violence started after, the Dalit rights activist and former Rajya Sabha MP also alleged that the Mumbai attacks were "sponsored". On Monday, Ambedkar also released a purported video of Bhide, in which the former RSS worker claims that he told Prime Minister
Narendra Modi to wear a saffron turban while delivering his Independence Day speech from the Red Fort in August 2014. Ambedkar also released a video clip of PM Modi before he was appointed PM, in which he is heard saying: "I am thankful to Bhide guruji (Sambhaji Bhide) because he did not send me an invitation. He ordered me". The Prime Minister was referring to an event he was participating in Maharashtra.
