PM accuses Cong of disrespecting marginalised communities

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday accused the Congress of “disrespecting” Dalit icon, BR Ambedkar, and said the grand old party is preventing the OBC Commission from getting constitutional status in the Parliament.

Interacting with the SC/ST, OBC, Minority and Slum Morchas of the Karnataka BJP through the NaMo mobile app, the Prime Minister said the Congress did not care much for the marginalised communities.

“There is no place for Dalits in the heart of the Congress. This has been continuing for many decades. The Congress has no respect for even Ambedkar. They did everything to defeat him in the 1952 elections and the bypoll to the Bhandara parliamentary constituency in 1953,” he said.

Citing instances of attacks against minorities and marginalised communities, the Congress has been hitting out at the BJP for not doing enough to protect their rights. But the PM retaliated saying, “You will be surprised to know that during the Congress regime, OBC leaders used to demand a constitutional status to OBC Commission but they [Congress] never cared. They only remain involved in vote bank politics... To stop the OBC Commission getting constitutional status, they did not allow Parliament to function,” he said.

The PM also pointed out that the BJP has the maximum numberofMPsfromtheSC,ST, OBC and minority communities, and said that the leaders of various morchas had a paramount role in connecting directly with people.

He also said that schemes such as Stand up India and Mudra Yojana were helping SC/STs, OBCs and women become empowered. Invoking Ambedkar, social reformer Jyotiba Phule, Sant Kabir, and Ravidas’s contributions, Modi said their efforts continued to show his government the way.