West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday announced that her Trinamul Congress will organise blocklevel and ward-level protest rallies on 23 December condemning the recent remarks by the Union Home Minister Amit Shah about Dr B.R. Ambedkar. Noting that Ambedkar envisioned a nation built on values of justice, liberty, equality, and fraternity, where all classes, castes, creeds, and communities could live in harmony, Miss Banerjee, in a statement, said: “This is not just an insult to Babasaheb but an attack on the entire Drafting Committee of the Indian Constitution, an assault on the legacy of our freedom fighters, and a betrayal of our Dalit and Adivasi brethren.”
“To condemn this, we will organise protest rallies across all blocks of Bengal and every ward of Kolkata on 23rd December, from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. I urge you to join us in this fight to defend Babasaheb’s legacy and our Constitutional spirit. Let’s unite to hold the BJP accountable for their unforgivable actions.” Miss Banerjee, who is also Trinamul Congress chairperson, further accused the BJP of systematically demolishing the country’s constitutional ethos and “tearing apart the democratic values and the principles that bind the Indians as a nation”.
According to her, the comments about Ambedkar are reflections of the BJP’s culture of hate and intolerance. The Union Home Minister was in West Bengal on Friday to address a programme at Siliguri in the Darjeeling district on the occasion of the 61st Raising Day of the Sashastra Seema Bal.
The Chief Minister had been quite vocal on Mr Shah’s recent comments about Ambedkar. On Thursday, on two separate occasions for the forthcoming Christmas festival, she said that she was really shocked over comments made about Ambedkar. Earlier on Wednesday, she had issued a statement where she claimed that as the Indian Parliament reflected on 75 years of the Constitution, the Union Home Minister chose to tarnish this occasion with derogatory remarks against Ambedkar and that “too in the temple of democracy”.