West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee during the inauguration of 'Kolkata Christmas Festival-2024', in Kolkata
Credit: PTI Photo
Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday said she was shocked at Union Home Minister Amit Shah's recent remarks about B R Ambedkar.
Banerjee was speaking at the inauguration of the 'Kolkata Christmas Festival' at Allen Park in Park Street area.
"I am shocked at the comments made about Babasaheb Ambedkar," she said.
Banerjee had on Wednesday claimed that Shah's remarks in the Rajya Sabha about B R Ambedkar were a display of the BJP's "casteist and anti-Dalit mindset".
She had termed the remarks derogatory, claiming that those were an insult to the millions of people who look up to Ambedkar for guidance and inspiration.
"The mask has fallen! As Parliament reflects on 75 glorious years of the Constitution, HM @AmitShah chose to TARNISH this occasion with DEROGATORY remarks against Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar, that too in the temple of Democracy," she posted on X on Wednesday.
"This is a display of BJP’s CASTEIST and ANTI-DALIT mindset. If this is how they behave after being reduced to 240 seats, imagine the damage they would've inflicted if their dream of 400 seats had been realised. They’d have rewritten history to entirely erase Dr. Ambedkar's contributions," she alleged.
The CM reiterated that Ambedkar, the father of the Constitution, deserved to be respected.
Shah, speaking in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday during a debate on Constitution, had 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).”