Amit Shah would have been 'scrap dealer' but for Ambedkar's Constitution: CM

Belagavi: Stepping up the attack against Union Minister Amit Shah for his comments on B R Ambedkar in Parliament, senior Congress leader and Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Thursday claimed that Shah would have been a "Gujari" (scrap dealer) if there wasn't Ambedkar's Constitution. The chief minister further said that if Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar was really functioning under the Constitution, he should have immediately suspended Shah from the House.

Reading out a detailed statement in the assembly amid din by both BJP and the Congress MLAs over the issue, Siddaramaiah said the entire country has heard the "derogatory" words spoken by the Home Minister about Babasaheb Ambedkar.

During a debate on the Constitution in Rajya Sabha on Tuesday, Shah said, "Abhi ek fashion ho gaya hai - Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar. Itna naam agar bhagwan ka lete to saat janmon tak swarg mil jata (It has become a fashion to say Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar'. If they had taken God's name so many times, they would have got a place in heaven)."

Stating that there is nothing surprising in the words spoken by Shah, Siddaramaiah said what was in the minds of the BJP and Sangh Parivar leaders has come out in the open. "First of all, I congratulate you (Amit Shah) for openly and courageously revealing the innermost opinion of the Bharatiya Janata Party about Babasaheb Ambedkar before the country and for finally telling the truth in your lifetime," he said. He said that if there was no Constitution, Shah would have been a "scrap dealer" in his village and not the Home Minister of the country.

Siddaramaiah said Ambedkar was not an annoyance, but an eternal memory. "As long as we breathe, as long as the Sun and Moon exist on this Earth, the memory of Ambedkar will be there. The more you insult him, the more he will bounce back and rise, and he will light up our path of progress," he underlined. The CM also reiterated that if Ambedkar was not there, he and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge would not have occupied high positions. Instead, he would have had to stay in his village grazing cattle and sheep, he added. The CM said it was on the expected lines that Shah blamed the opposition for twisting his statement. The Congress MLAs put out photos of Ambedkar on their tables, while the BJP displayed posters in the assembly, accusing Siddaramaiah of being anti-Hindu. Both sides raised slogans against each other. The commotion led to the adjournment of the House twice by Speaker U T Khader.