Every political party tries to misuse BR Ambedkar’s name, but no government has honoured him as much as the current regime has, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Wednesday.
“Instead of playing politics with Ambedkar’s name, everyone should try to follow the path he showed,” Modi said at the inauguration of a building in New Delhi that will provide accommodation for MPs.
His statement came two days after nationwide Dalit protests against a Supreme Court order that was said to have diluted a law protecting the community from atrocities. The government was initially accused of not doing enough to contest the verdict, but later it filed a review petition in the court.
The prime minister said his government had given Ambedkar his rightful place by completing projects conceived in his memory, PTI reported. He said the house where Ambedkar died in New Delhi in 1956 would be dedicated to the nation a day before his birth anniversary this year.
“There are two places in Delhi that are associated with Babasaheb Ambedkar, on whom the [Atal Behari] Vajpayee government had made crucial decisions,” Modi said. “It was our government that got the opportunity to work on them and pay tributes to Dr Ambedkar.”
He said the previous Congress-led government had not worked on the project for years.
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