Congress did not promote Ambedkar to protect stature of Nehru-Gandhi family, says Karnataka CM Basavaraj Bommai

The Chief Minister said the Congress party not only opposed Dr. B.R. Ambedkar’s election to the Lok Sabha, but denied land for his funeral in the national capital New Delhi

Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai claimed that the Congress was never in favour of promoting Dr. B.R. Ambedkar to safeguard the stature of the Nehru-Gandhi family.

Speaking at the national executive of the BJP’s Scheduled Caste Morcha in Mysuru on January 7, Mr. Bommai said the Congress party, even to this day, fears that the popularity of Dr. Ambedkar will overshadow the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty. Hence, the party never gave the ‘architect of Indian Constitution’ his due.

The Chief Minister said the Congress party not only opposed Dr. Ambedkar’s election to the Lok Sabha, but denied land for his funeral in the national capital New Delhi. The Congress knows only how to pay ‘lip sympathy’ to the architect of the Indian Constitution and reap benefits for the party by using his name. He alleged that the Congress had been using Dalits as its ‘vote bank’.

Mr. Bommai said Dr. Ambedkar was a social scientist, economist, thinker and political leader. Above all, he was a ‘desh bhakt’.

Claiming that nobody else followed Dr. Ambedkar’s ideals as much as the BJP, Mr. Bommai said Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikaas and Sabka Vishwas’ was reflective of the idea of ‘inclusive growth’ propounded by Dr. Ambedkar.

The Chief Minister said the BJP’s programmes are aimed at taking the people, who were at the bottom rung of development, to the highest level and cited the efforts of his government to increase reservation for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in proportion to their population in Karnataka, besides the increase in scholarship and the proposed construction of students’ hostels in different parts of the State to facilitate students from Dalit and other backward classes to enrol in educational institutions in larger cities.

He called upon members of the BJP’s national executive to discuss programmes that will help improve the condition of Scheduled Castes, and submit a report to the State Government for consideration.