Vanchit Bahujan Aaghadi President Prakash Ambedkar.
Credit: PTI Photo
Mumbai: Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) founder Prakash Ambedkar on Friday accused the BJP and the Congress of not only removing the symbols of Buddha's teachings and Dhamma, but also the symbols chosen by Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar to represent India.
“Today in 2025, BJP removed Ashoka's Lion Capital from government advertisements, then removed Ashoka Chakra from Maharashtra Legislature, and now posters put up at Aurangabad and Kolhapur Collectorate show "Sengol" in place of Ashoka's Lion Capital,” Ambedkar said justifying the VBA’s protest against such “nefarious designs”.
The 70-year-old lawyer-activist-politician, a two-time Lok Sabha MP and a one-term Rajya Sabha MP, is the grandson of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, the chief architect of the Constitution of India.
“Ashoka’s Lion Capital was erected by the Buddhist Emperor Ashoka of Maurya Empire. After India’s independence Ashoka’s Lion Capital was adopted as the National Emblem of India. Babasaheb played a very big role in India adopting Ashoka’s Lion Capital as the National Emblem and Ashoka Chakra in National Flag in navy blue colour. Both Ashoka’s Lion Capital and Ashoka Chakra are symbols of Buddha’s teachings and Dhamma,” said Ambedkar.
“As a member of the Ad-hoc Committee on the National Flag, Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar later explained, “Even though Buddhism is almost extinct in India, yet it has given birth to a culture, which is far better and richer than the Brahminic culture. When the question of the national flag and the national emblem was being considered by the Constituent Assembly we could not find any suitable symbol from the Brahminic culture. Ultimately, Buddhist culture came to our rescue and we accepted the Wheel of Law (Dhamma-Chakra) as the national symbol”….The symbols of independent India were to be selected for printing on Indian currency notes.
According to him, initially it was felt that the portrait of the King should be replaced by that of Mahatma Gandhi. “Designs were prepared in this regard. But Gandhi’s face on Indian currency notes was rejected, and Ashoka’s Lion Capital was chosen instead. Mahatma Gandhi’s portrait first appeared on currency notes in 1969 on the occasion of his birth centenary. Mahatma Gandhi's portrait reappeared on the newly printed Rs 500 note in 1987, when the then Rajiv Gandhi government reintroduced it. RBI then finally introduced the Mahatma Gandhi series in 1996, with his face permanently imprinted on all Indian notes since then,” he said.
“Understand that this work was started by the Congress and BJP is carrying it forward. BJP and Congress have not only removed the symbols of Buddha's teachings and Dhamma, but also the symbols chosen by Babasaheb to represent India. And, that is why we say that BJP and Congress are not only anti-Buddhist, they are against Babasaheb and anti-national as well!”