After two days of relative calm during which Parliament debated 75 years of the Constitution, it reverted to what has become its default position in recent years. Noisy scenes erupted in both Houses on Wednesday, with Opposition members rushing to the well of the House, leading to abrupt adjournments.
Apparently, the trigger for the commotion was a remark by Home Minister Amit Shah, taken out of context from his long reply to the debate on the Constitution in the Rajya Sabha the previous day. The Opposition claimed Shah had insulted B.R. Ambedkar, the chairman of the Constituent Assembly. Accusing the Congress Party of opportunism, Shah charged then-Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru with belittling Ambedkar, asserting that his resignation from the Cabinet would have no effect on the government. Shah also pointed out that when Ambedkar contested a Lok Sabha by-election in Bombay, the Congress not only fielded a candidate against him but Nehru personally campaigned to ensure Ambedkar’s defeat.
Earlier, Sithanshu Trivedi, a BJP member from Uttar Pradesh, participating in the same debate, referenced these historical incidents, adding that Ambedkar’s election agent was none other than Dattopant Thengdi, the late RSS-Jana Sangh leader who founded the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh. However, Shah hammered home the point about Congress singing paeans to Ambedkar only after it suffered defeats in multiple elections, remarking that the party now opportunistically chanted, “Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar… itna naam bhagwan ka lete toh janmo tak swarg mil jata.”
The Opposition seized upon this admittedly poorly framed sentence to accuse Shah of insulting Ambedkar. Of course, this interpretation was far from the truth. Nevertheless, Shah’s clumsy construction provided the Opposition with an opportunity to embarrass him. A notice of privilege motion was submitted by a Trinamool Congress member in the Rajya Sabha, while the Congress independently moved privilege motions in both Houses.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi countered the Opposition’s ploy to target Shah. In a social media post, he said the Opposition was “clearly stung and stunned by the facts Shah presented, which is why they are now indulging in theatrics. Sadly for them, people know the truth.” Addressing the Congress specifically, Modi wrote, “If its rotten ecosystem thinks their malicious lies can hide their misdeeds of several years, especially their insult towards Ambedkar, they are gravely mistaken.”
Shah’s response during Tuesday’s debate was a trenchant critique of the Congress Party. This frontal assault left Congress members squirming, with only feeble attempts to counter Shah’s barbs. The Congress’s lip service to Ambedkar continues to find few takers.
