BJP SC leader slams IGNCA chief’s remarks

Rai called Ambedkar’s role in framing Constitution a myth.

At a time when the BJP is desperately trying to woo the dalit votebank in election-bound Uttar Pradesh, controversial remarks by IGNCA chairman against dalit icon B.R. Ambedkar have come under attack from none other than party’s Scheduled Caste morcha head.

In an interview to a magazine, IGNCA chairman Ram Bahadur Rai had termed as “myth” Ambedkar’s role in the making of the Constitution.

His comments had come at a time when both the RSS and the BJP have undertaken various initiatives targetting dalits and backward caste communities in UP. BJP president Amit Shah recently had a lunch with a dalit family in Varanasi. Mr Shah also took a holy dip at the Valmiki Ghat with the dalits in the recently-concluded Simhasta Kumbh in Ujjain.

The RSS and the BJP had also come under attack from the Opposition for trying to usurp Ambedkar’s legacy for votebank politics.

Condemning Mr Rai’s comments, BJP’s SC morcha chief Dushyant Kumar Gautam said comments like these “insulted” Ambedkar and were a “hurdle” in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s agenda of creating social harmony. He termed such comments against the Father of the Indian Constitution, an outcome of people’s “malice and enmity” towards dalits.

Describing Ambedkar as the “foremost patriot,” Mr Gautam claimed that people like Mr Rai were “concerned” over Mr Modi’s attempts to attach the dalit community with BJP. The IGNCA chairman is a former ABVP general secretary and a journalist.