Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday claimed that Rohith Vemula was forced to commit suicide “for talking about B.R. Ambedkar among students” and demanded that the “two ministers” responsible for it be sacked.
He also took a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, asking whether the dalit icon’s dreams would be fulfilled by merely garlanding his portraits and said “there was no freedom of speech in the country”.
“Vemula was forced to commit suicide for talking about Babasaheb among students. Why people who are holding constitutional offices not acting against those who forced him to commit suicide Will Babasaheb’s dream be fulfilled by the Prime Minister going to Mhow and garlanding his portrait Babasaheb Ambedkar gave three words liberty, equality and fraternity...They say don’t chant Bharat Mata ki Jai in Kashmir and beat them up who don’t say it in the rest of the country. There’s no freedom of speech in the country. There’s no equality. There’s no fraternity. They say one is a patriot and the other anti-national, Kashmiri and non-Kashmiri, JNU wallah and non-JNU wallah,” he said.
Those who are making a mockery of the Constitution should not “pretend” that they respect Ambedkar by garlanding him at his birthplace. They are dividing the country, Kejriwal said in an apparent reference to Mr Modi, who on Thursday paid rich floral tributes to Ambedkar at his birth place.
“I just want to say, Modi is not country, RSS is not Parliament and Manusmriti is not the Constitution,” Mr Kejriwal said to a rapturous applause at an event at Talkatora Stadium to mark the 125th birth anniversary of the dalit icon.
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh calls for a review of the quota system while the Prime Minister says he is “in favour of reservation”, the Delhi chief minister said and wondered whom the Bharatiya Janata Party was “fooling”.
Projecting the Aam Aadmi Party as a party of the poor and dalits, Mr Kejriwal the the Centre was planning to include “Savarkar” in school curriculum while the Delhi government plans to “teach” Ambedkar.
