West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday said she was shocked at Union Home Minister Amit Shah's recent remarks about BR Ambedkar and the way he was being "belittled".
Mamata Banerjee was speaking at the 'Kolkata Christmas Festival' inauguration at Allen Park in the Park Street area and later at a get-together in St Xavier's College.
"I am shocked at the comments made about Babasaheb Ambedkar... I feel bad seeing Babasaheb belittled," she said.
Mamata Banerjee had on Wednesday claimed that Amit Shah's remarks in the Rajya Sabha about BR Ambedkar were a display of the BJP's "casteist and anti-Dalit mindset".
She had termed the remarks derogatory, claiming that those were an insult to the millions of people who look up to Ambedkar for guidance and inspiration.
"The mask has fallen! As Parliament reflects on 75 glorious years of the Constitution, HM @AmitShah chose to TARNISH this occasion with DEROGATORY remarks against Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar, that too in the temple of Democracy," she posted on X on Wednesday.
"This is a display of BJP's CASTEIST and ANTI-DALIT mindset. If this is how they behave after being reduced to 240 seats, imagine the damage they would've inflicted if their dream of 400 seats had been realised. They'd have rewritten history to entirely erase Dr. Ambedkar's contributions," she alleged.
The CM reiterated that Ambedkar, the father of the Constitution, deserved to be respected.
Amit Shah, speaking in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday during a debate on Constitution, had said: "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)." Mamata Banerjee, in her address on Thursday, also alleged that the BJP-led central government "omitted December 25 from the list of national holidays".
"This is not right. We love all religions and festivals, and Christmas is celebrated in all the districts," she said.
The 'Kolkata Christmas Festival' will continue till December 30.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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