None honoured Ambedkar like us: Modi

Days after Dalit protests across the country against the alleged “dilution” of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah on Wednesday slammed the critics of the Centre’s policy towards Dalits and heaped praises on BR Ambedkar.

While Modi claimed that no other Government has honoured BR Ambedkar like his Government has done, Shah asserted the Centre would never scrap the policy of reservations for SCs and STs in education and jobs nor allow anyone to do so.

The Prime Minister was seeking to reach out to the Dalit community days after the nationwide Bharat Bandh protests, which saw 11 people lose their lives over the dilution the Act by the Supreme Court. Modi was speaking at the inauguration of an annexe building at Western Court that acts as a transit accommodation for newly elected lawmakers.

Modi did not make any direct reference to the Bharat Bandh protests that singed large parts of north India on Monday. “No Government has, perhaps, given respect to Babasaheb the way our Government has. Instead of dragging him into politics, we should all try to walk on the path he has shown us...,” he said.

This is the first time the PM spoke directly on the issue, even though his party colleagues have made several statements about their disagreement with the Supreme Court order and about their Government’s commitment to the welfare of Dalits.

Lamenting that everyone had dragged Ambedkar’s name for political gains, Modi said it was his Government that completed the Ambedkar International Centre though the idea was conceived when Atal Bihari Vajpayee was Prime Minister. Modi said his Government has given Ambedkar his rightful place by completing projects conceived in his memory.

The 26 Alipur Road house, where the Dalit icon died, would be dedicated to the nation on April 13 on the eve of his birth anniversary, Modi said. Hitting out at the UPA, he said the previous Government had dragged its feet on the project for years.

The Prime Minister added that it was the Vajpayee-led NDA Government that had started identifying places of significance related to Ambedkar’s life and his Government was proud to pay tributes to chairman of the Drafting Committee of India’s Constitution.

On the other hand, addressing an OBC convention in Karnataka on Wednesday, BJP president Amit Shah said the Opposition was responsible for the 11 lives lost during the Bharat Bandh protest. Quoting Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the BJP president said, “We have full faith in the Constitution of India. There will not be slightest change in the reservation policy as set by BR Ambedkar in the Constitution. No one can dare to change it. The BJP will also not allow anyone to change the reservation policy.

Earlier, Shah had tweeted that Modi had met members of Parliament belonging to SC communities and assured them that the Government is doing everything to protect the rights and well-being “of our Dalit sisters and brothers”.

Not to be left out of the political war of words, the Congress on Wednesday said that the Modi Government’s “duplicity” over the Supreme Court’s refusal to stay its ruling on the SC and ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act had been exposed. “The Modi Government’s ‘double speak’ and ‘duplicity’ on SC/ST Act exposed in Supreme Court!,” Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala tweeted.