Will the insult to Baba Saheb be too much for the Modi government?
The winter session of Parliament, which began on November 25, ended last Friday. The session was marred by uproar from the very first day. As soon as the session began, Opposition Leader Rahul Gandhi raised the issue of Adani’s arrest warrant issued by a US court, a sore point of the ruling party, and demanded a debate on it. The ruling party had hurriedly introduced the ‘One Nation, One Election’ bill to suppress this issue. In the voting held to introduce the bill, the ruling party had to face humiliation when many members of its own and supporting parties did not participate in the voting. As a result, the bill had to be referred to a parliamentary committee. During this, a heated debate took place on the Constitution. The opposition parties launched sharp attacks on the ruling party for weakening the principles of federalism and democracy. In response to these attacks, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said that taking Ambedkar’s name has now become fashionable, Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar…if one takes the name of God so many times, one would get heaven for seven births, it would bring an earthquake.
This was not a slip of the tongue, because it was clear that Amit Shah was reading a written speech. In fact, this was a deliberate crime to divert attention from the Adani issue. The entire country erupted against this insult to Babasaheb Ambedkar. People in every corner of the country have spontaneously come out on the streets demanding the resignation of the Home Minister. There is a lot of resentment among Dalits and backward castes against the Modi government. The opposition, which was seen scattered over the Adani issue, has united. Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge accused Amit Shah of insulting Ambedkar and demanded his resignation. Kharge said, “He has insulted Babasaheb, he has insulted the Constitution. His RSS ideology shows that he himself does not want to respect Babasaheb’s Constitution. The entire opposition demands Amit Shah’s resignation.”
Some political commentators are of the opinion that Amit Shah should have apologized to rectify his mistake and cooled the issue.
But the BJP’s stance is not like that. The next day, before the Parliament session began, when the MPs of the opposition parties were protesting from the statue of Babasaheb Ambedkar to the gate of the Parliament demanding Amit Shah’s resignation, the BJP’s thugs were standing in front of him, holding placards with thick sticks, blocking the way. Not only that, these members pushed and shoved the members of the opposition parties and prevented them from entering the Parliament. Meanwhile, it was reported that Rahul Gandhi had pushed BJP MP Mukesh Rajput from Farrukhabad, causing him to fall on another MP, Pratap Singh Sarangi, due to which Pratap Singh Sarangi sustained an injury on his head. MP Sarangi from Odisha is the Bajrang Dal leader who was accused of setting fire to Christian missionary Graham Stein and his two innocent children while they were sleeping in a jeep.
Both the MPs were immediately admitted to the ICU ward of RML Hospital. The last scene of the play was still to be performed. Prime Minister Narendra Modi called Pratap Sarangi on his mobile. When Sarangi said hello sir, he was asked to turn on the speaker so that the condolences expressed by the Prime Minister could be recorded on video cameras. Have you ever seen or heard of such a ‘critical’ condition of patients admitted to the ICU? Meanwhile, another video has spoiled the whole drama. When Mukesh Rajput was asked where Rahul Gandhi was when the push happened, he said that he was going ahead. How can a person going ahead push from behind?
Immediately after this, BJP MPs Anurag Thakur and Bansuri Swaraj went to the Parliament Street police station through BJP MP Hemang Joshi and registered a case against Rahul Gandhi under several stringent sections. Some time later, Congress also registered a complaint against Mallikarjun Kharge for pushing him to the ground, but the case was not registered. Congress is continuously demanding that the CCTV footage of the push-and-pull be made public, the whole truth will come out, but the Lok Sabha Speaker’s office is sitting silently.
Meanwhile, Bahujan Samaj Party president Mayawati issued a statement saying that both Congress and BJP are doing politics in the name of Bhimrao Ambedkar.
