BJP claims Nehru govt humiliated Bharat Ratna Dr Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar

The BJP on Monday launched a fresh attack against the Congress and its previous regimes, accusing the party of not just demeaning Bharat Ratna Dr Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar’s contributions to the country but also conspiring to erase his legacy.

The nation is celebrating the 135th birth anniversary of Dr B R Ambedkar, the key architect of India’s Constitution today. Fondly known as ‘Babsaheb,’ Ambedkar is also called the ‘Father of the Indian Constitution. Ambedkar was also the first law and justice minister of independent India.

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On Monday, the saffron party released two dramatised videos which reenact the political developments of that era, and the videos claim “how Dr Ambedkar suffered a series of ‘ignominy and humiliation’, under the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru”.

It claims that Baba Saheb was forced to resign from the Nehru cabinet because he questioned the then dispensation and raised his voice against the plight of scheduled castes and scheduled tribes.

While tendering his resignation in Parliament, Dr Ambedkar also launched a blistering attack at the then Nehru government.

“Are only Muslims entitled to special privileges? Why shouldn’t the Scheduled castes and Scheduled tribes be given the same level of security? I can’t be part of such a government,” he said in the House, while stepping down from the Union cabinet, claims the video.

The then Prime Minister, himself hitting the electoral fray to campaign against Dr Ambedkar, was another defining moment of how the Bharat Ratna was ‘dishonoured and derided’ by the Congress. The theatrical adaptations of that era, shared in the video, claim that a former aide of Bala Saheb was propped, apparently at the instance of Jawaharlal Nehru, to challenge and defeat him in the elections.

When the first Lok Sabha elections were held in 1951–52, Dr B R Ambedkar contested from the Mumbai North Central constituency as a candidate of the Scheduled Castes Federation. He was defeated by Narayan Sadoba Kajrolkar, a Congress candidate who had served as Ambedkar’s personal assistant. Kajrolkar won by a margin of approximately 15,000 votes. It was the then PM Nehru who campaigned against Dr Ambedkar in the election, making it a matter of prestige to ensure his defeat.

Following this electoral loss, Babasaheb contested the Bhandara by-election in Maharashtra in 1954. He was again defeated — this time by Congress candidate Bhaurao Borkar, with a margin of about 8,500 votes.

The BJP claims that the Nehru government and the Congress party took deliberate steps to undermine Dr Ambedkar’s contributions and also ensure his electoral defeats and political marginalisation.

“The countrymen will never forget the affront and insult meted out to the architect of the Constitution,” it said.