"Country Will Not Tolerate Ambedkar's Insult": Rahul Gandhi

Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday said the country will not tolerate Babasaheb Ambedkar's insult and demanded that Home Minister Amit Shah should apologise for his remarks in the Rajya Sabha.

Mr Gandhi alleged that the BJP is against Ambedkar and his ideology.

Several MPs of the INDIA bloc, including Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Mr Gandhi, staged a protest in Parliament premises demanding Shah's apology for his remarks which they claimed were an insult to B R Ambedkar.

Sharing pictures from the protest, Mr Gandhi said in a Facebook post in Hindi, "Baba Saheb is the architect of the Constitution, a great man who gave direction to the country. The country will not tolerate his insult or the insult to the Constitution framed by him. Home Minister should apologize!" 

Later speaking with reporters within Parliament premises, Mr Gandhi said, "They are against the Constitution. They had said earlier that we will change the Constitution. They are against Ambedkar and his ideology. Their whole work is to finish off Ambedkar's contribution and the Constitution. The whole country knows." 

Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra also shared pictures from the protest on X.

"One gets rights by taking the name of Ambedkar ji. Taking the name of Ambedkar ji is a symbol of human dignity. Ambedkar ji's name is a symbol of self-respect of crores of Dalits and deprived people," Priyanka Gandhi said in a post in Hindi on X.

The Congress on Tuesday alleged that Shah's remarks in the Rajya Sabha during a debate on the Constitution show that the BJP and the RSS leaders have a "lot of hatred" for Ambedkar and demanded an apology from him.

Congress general secretary-in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh had shared a video snippet on X from Shah's speech in the upper house.

"Abhi ek fashion ho gaya hai - Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar. Itna naam agar bhagwan ka lete to saat janmon tak swarg mil jata (It has become a fashion to say Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar'. If they had taken God's name so many times, they would have got a place in heaven)," Mr Shah had said, taking a swipe at the opposition.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday stoutly defended Shah from the Congress' charge that he insulted Ambedkar in his speech in the Rajya Sabha, asserting that the Home Minister in fact exposed the party's "dark history of insulting" the architect of the Constitution, leaving the main opposition "stung and stunned".

"They are clearly stung and stunned by the facts he presented, which is why they are now indulging in theatrics. Sadly, for them, people know the truth," Modi said in a series of posts on X.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)