Rijiju: Nehru denied Ambedkar his due, Congress did not give him Bharat Ratna

Asserting that Mahatma Gandhi had asked Nehru to include Ambedkar in the first Cabinet along with Syama Prasad Mookerji, Rijiju said that as someone interested in economics, Ambedkar wanted a ministry where he could contribute to the economy.

“He told Nehru that his first priority was economy, but he did not get those ministries. He was also not included in any Cabinet committee. He got frustrated that he was not being given any opportunity. He was also not given a planning portfolio. He said he was not interested in an ornamental portfolio,” Rijiju said, obliquely seeking to blame Nehru for his resignation.

Existing writings on Ambedkar’s resignation, including a piece written by Ram Madhav for The Indian Express, see opposition to the Hindu Code Bill as the reason behind the social reformer’s move.

Rijiju said Ambedkar wanted to return as an MP, but the Congress ensured his defeat in the elections. He asserted that Ambedkar had written that Nehru, the leader of the Congress, had never spoken about the welfare of the Scheduled Castes even once, though he did have sympathies towards Muslims, and wondered what sympathies the Dalits could expect from the Congress as a party.

Rijiju added that while Ambedkar’s view on reservation was about the primacy of social justice, for Nehru it was a temporary measure for the integration of these groups.

“Till 1990, why did you not give Bharat Ratna to Babasaheb Ambedkar? Nehru and Indira Gandhi gave themselves Bharat Ratna. It was the VP Singh government that gave Bharat Ratna to Babasaheb. He was the first one to deserve Bharat Ratna,” Rijiju charged, adding, “Modi-ji gave prominence to five teerth sthals (places of pilgrimage) related to Dr Ambedkar. His Mhow birthplace was developed, the house where he lived in London was purchased and declared Shiksha Bhoomi.”

“The place where he passed away is being developed as Parinirvan Bhoomi. The Babasaheb Ambedkar International Memorial has come up. In Mumbai, we are developing the Chaitya Bhoomi of Babasaheb. A 430-foot statue of Ambedkar is coming up in Mumbai. It will be visible from 25-30 km away too.”

He said that while Dr Ambedkar struggled against untouchability, he had no enmity with Hinduism, and had also faced discrimination from Muslims, Christians, and Parsis. “In 1961, Nehru wrote to all CMs that if we promote reservation, the talented will suffer. Nehru thought of talent, but this should not happen at the cost of the disadvantaged,” the minister said.

Rijiju added that after the Mandal Commission report came out in 1980, it was put on the back burner for 10 years. “It was the VP Singh government supported by the BJP that decided to implement it. We all know what Rajiv Gandhi and Nehru said. You speak the opposite of it today but don’t say that you don’t agree with their views,” he stated.

The Union Minister for Minority Affairs wondered why some went out of the country and said that Muslims cannot go to dargahs and Sikhs to gurdwaras in today’s India – hinting at a statement by Rahul Gandhi while addressing the diaspora in Washington DC in September that the fight was about whether a Sikh would be allowed to wear a turban or go to a gurudwara in India.

Referring to Articles 25 to 30 of the Constitution that guaranteed freedom of religion and minority rights, Rijiju said, “The National Commission of Minorities that exists here has no parallel anywhere in the world. We give not just legal protection and affirmative action to minorities. Quite a few schemes are running for the minorities. I go and meet people of minority communities wherever I go.”

“We should be careful that we don’t damage the image of our country when we speak. In 1965, non-whites got voting rights in the US. In South Africa, apartheid ended in 1994. In England, in 1918, non-whites got voting rights. In our case, we got all these rights as soon as we got independent. But sometimes it is claimed that minorities have no rights in this country,” he added.

Referring to a global survey by the Centre for Policy Analysis, EU, Rijiju underlined, “Forty-eight per cent people have faced discrimination in the EU, and they are generally Muslim. In France, the majority of Muslims faced discrimination over the headscarf. In Spain, there is a high incidence of hate crimes against Muslims. In Indonesia, there is discrimination against Shias and Ahmadiyas. We know about Pakistan, now Bangladesh, and Afghanistan, where we know what the remaining population of minorities is. Where they face a crisis, the first country they come to is India.”

Seeking to distinguish between the intent of the constitutional amendments piloted by the BJP and the Congress, Rijiju said, “As many as 106 constitutional amendments have taken place till now. The procedure for amendment is also in the Constitution. Seventy-five amendments took place in Congress days and 25 times under the BJP. But the point is the difference in the purpose of the amendment. The 39th Amendment was to overturn the Allahabad High Court judgment against Indira Gandhi. You brought the 42nd amendment to change the Preamble. We amended the Constitution to pave the way for women’s reservation, and to give constitutional status to the OBC Commission. You did it to deny Shah Bano her rights.”

He added, “You say we are damaging the Constitution. But you murdered the Constitution. You changed the Preamble itself.

Rijiju said that the Modi government’s ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas, Sabka Prayas’ embodies the spirit of the Constitution. “After 75 years, our President is an Adivasi woman. I quote Dr Ambedkar with a sense of duty. Had his spirit not been there in our Constitution, I would not have been here. I come from such a place where we used to walk on foot,” he added.

He said that while the country was ahead of other nations that gained independence around the same time in Asia and Africa, it was behind some in per capita terms because the previous governments set no targets to make India a developed nation.

He went on, “I used to think as a young MP why we could not become a developed country despite our talent and history. For 65 years you stayed in power – did you not think about it? Had you kept a target you would have succeeded. Only after 2014 have we kept a target. If the whole country works together, we can become a developed country in 2047. The opposition people laugh at these things. We all have to work together for Viksit Bharat. You keep laughing at these things. Not one Opposition MP came to take part in the Fit India campaign we began. You laughed at our vaccine.”

“Your Defence Minister once said that there should be no roads in border areas, or China will come via that route and take away our lands,” Rijiju said amid interruptions, referring to a purported statement by A K Antony. “After Modi-ji came to power, my village – which went to the Chinese for two weeks in 1962 and where the Chinese once used to scare people – where one had to go on foot, can be reached by car in three-four hours. I have seen this change in 10 years. The first reason for me to join a political party was that I wanted to join a party that was nationalist. That is why I joined the ABVP and BJP.”

Rijiju had, however, quit the party and joined the Congress in 2009 before returning to the BJP in 2012.

“Until 2014, 10,900 km of highways were constructed in the Northeast, but in the last 10 years, 16,207 km of highways have been built,” he added. “You speak about one state there repeatedly, but what did the Congress do to the Northeast? The highest number of militant organisations in the world was in the Northeast till 2014. They paid no attention to the Northeast. Their ministers also did not go to the Northeast, while the PM goes there quite often.”

Speaking after Rijiju, A Raja of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) sought to know what the contribution of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and Hindu Mahasabha was to the Constitution. He also recalled that Jawaharlal Nehru had moved the Objectives Resolution.

Raja accused the government of going against the Basic Structure doctrine set by the Keshavanand Bharati judgment of the Supreme Court, and added that it had scant regard for democracy, secularism, federalism, the rule of law, etc. He recalled how Father Stan Swamy, who worked among tribals, was jailed and died, while also referring to the treatment meted out to the wrestlers who raised protests.

Hitting out at the government for repeatedly talking about the Emergency, Raja said that while DMK leaders including M K Stalin had faced excesses at that time, the party was with the Congress today because it considered the Constitution and the country to be above everything else.