Hyderabad, Nov 12, 2023: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has alleged that the Congress party denied Bharat Ratna to Babasaheb Ambedkar for decades. Addressing a rally of the Scheduled Castes community in Hyderabad on Saturday, PM Modi also claimed that the grand old party did not allow Ambedkar to win elections.
“This Congress twice did not allow Babasaheb Ambedkar to win. For decades together, the Congress ensured that Babasaheb’s portrait was not put up in the old Parliament, Central Hallâ€æ Babasaheb was not given the Bharat Ratna for decades together because of the Congress,” he alleged.
The Prime Minister stated that conferring the country’s highest civilian award to the architect of the Indian constitution was possible only after the BJP-supported government was formed at the Centre.
Ambedkar was posthumously awarded the Bharat Ratna in 1990 when VP Singh’s National Front government, with the support of the BJP, was in power at the Centre.
PM Modi also alleged that the ruling party in Telangana, the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), is anti-Dalit. He charged that the BRS did not fulfil the promises to provide land to Dalits and disburse thousands of crores of rupees under the ’Dalit Bandhu’ scheme.
"BRS is anti-Dalit and Congress is just like them. The BRS insulted Baba Saheb Ambedkar by demanding a new Constitution," he said addressing a rally organised by the Madiga community, one of the biggest constituents of Scheduled Castes in the Telugu states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
The Telangana Legislative Assembly election is scheduled to be held November 30 to elect all 119 members of the house. The state is expected to see a three-way contest between BRS, Congress and BJP.