Modi accuses Congress of having deprived Ambedkar of Bharat Ratna
- Shruti Sundar Ray
- Oct 17, 2019
- 2 min read
At an election rally in Maharashtra, Prime Minister Narendra Modi blamed the opposition for ignoring the legacy of BR Ambedkar and VD Savarkar, both of whom he praised in the same breath
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday slammed the Indian National Congress for failing to confer the Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian honour, on ‘Babasaheb’ BR Ambedkar, Maharashtra-born Dalit reformer and architect of the Indian Constitution, while its successive governments were in power at the Centre.
He criticised the party for denigrating revolutionary freedom fighter and author of the Hindu-nationalist ‘Hindutva’ manifesto VD ‘Veer’ Savarkar who also hails from Maharashtra.
Taking a hit at the opposition in an election rally in Akola, Maharashtra prior to the upcoming state Legislative Assembly polls, Modi said, “These are the same people who have insulted Babasaheb Ambedkar at every step and kept him deprived of the Bharat Ratna for decades, the same people who always make attacks at and insult Veer Savarkar.”
The Prime Minister was campaigning for the nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, which is in power at both the Centre and in Maharashtra. The state unit of the BJP has proposed that Hindutva ideologue Savarkar be awarded the Bharat Ratna, in its election manifesto. In his speech, Modi stated, “It is Veer Savarkar’s values, due to which we have placed nationalism as the basis of nation-building.”
In a press conference, Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari responded that if Savarkar could be proposed for Bharat Ratna, then why not Nathuram Godse, referring to the assassin who shot Mahatma Gandhi. “Why does NDA/BJP Government want to confer Bharath Ratna on Savarkar why not Godse?” he tweeted. Nathuram Godse was convicted and hanged for Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination while Savarkar, accused as a co-conspirator, was acquitted in the absence of evidence.
In the past, the BJP-led government has awarded the Bharat Ratna to forerunners of the Sangh Parivar, an umbrella term used to describe the collection of Hindu nationalist organisations, namely Hindu Mahasabha founder Madan Mohan Malaviya, BJP veteran and former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Bharatiya Jana Singh leader Nanaji Deshmukh.
The BJP has positioned itself as the champion of all leaders that it deems have been neglected by the Congress. It has laid claim to Maharashtra-born social reformers like Ambedkar and Jyotirao Phule, in a concerted effort to attract the vote of Dalits and Other Backward Classes.
At the same time, it has condemned the so-called dynastic politics of the Congress, centred on generations of the Nehru-Gandhi family. Ambedkar was posthumously awarded the Bharat Ratna only in 1990 by the Janata-Dal-led VP Singh government. The BJP has used this to decry the Congress party’s inclusive credentials. The Prime Minister tweeted, “The Congress sees devotion to the nation in devotion to a family.”
In August 2019, the Modi government had revoked Article 370 of the Indian Constitution that granted special status to the state of Jammu and Kashmir. The abrogation of the provision and ensuing lockdown in the region has been criticized by opposition parties including the Congress.
Conflating the Kashmir issue with that of the award of the Bharat Ratna, Modi in his Akola speech said, “It is the ill-will of the same people that is behind the opposition to the full application of Babasaheb Ambedkar’s Constitution to Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh.”
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