Prime Minister Narendra Modi today compared Dr BR Ambedkar to iconic civil rights leaders Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela and vowed a world-class memorial in Delhi in honour of the architect of the Indian constitution.
Delivering the sixth annual Ambedkar Memorial lecture, the PM said that none of his predecessors have attended the event in the past.
“It is a big mistake to label Baba sahib (only) a messiah of the Dalits,” he said, underscoring that Dr Ambedkar’s work in fighting the caste system was one of his many huge contributions to independent India.
The government has been headlining events to mark the 125th birth anniversary of Dr Ambedkar, with the opposition Congress accusing it of trying to appropriate a national icon that was for decades given minimal attention by the ruling BJP.
The government has been making a determined effort to counter the accusations that it is insensitive to Dalits, a charge leveled by critics and opposition leaders after the suicide of Dalit student Rohith Vemula at his university in Hyderabad in January. Mr Vemula had, before his death, written to university officials with grave allegations of being discriminated against because of his caste. The university and the union government have denied that. However, senior ministers questioned whether Mr Vemula’s family had rightly listed themselves as Dalits, a move that was denounced by many including Mr Vemula’s mother.
Students, opposition leaders and Mr Vemula’s mother have accused Education Minister Smriti Irani and union minister Bandaru Dattatreya of instigating university officials to hound Mr Vemula and his friends based on a complaint by leaders of a student wing affiliated to the BJP.