Ambedkar row: Dalit, Adivasi organisations to hold nationwide protest on Dec 28 seeking Amit Shah's resignation

They also warned MPs belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes should join the demonstrations or face defeat in the next elections.

New Delhi: Dalit and Adivasi organisations will hold nationwide protests on Saturday against Home Minister Amit Shah seeking his resignation and apology for the "insulting" remarks against BR Ambedkar, as they warned MPs belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes to join the demonstrations or face defeat in the next elections.

Announcing the programme at district and taluk level across the country at 1 pm on December 28, National Confederation of Dalit and Adivasi Organisations (NACDAOR) Chairman Ashok Bharti said several organisations would join the protests against Shah’s remarks, which was “not an off-the-cuff” remark but an “intentional and premeditated act born out of hatred the RSS holds against Ambedkar”.

“We demand an unqualified apology from Shah, he should resign. We are also equally shocked at the studied silence from all NDA and BJP ministers and MPs, who have been elected from the reserved seats, which became a reality only because of Ambedkar,” he told a press conference.

Jai Bhim Mission president and former Delhi Minister Rajendra Pal Gautam said it was Ambedkar who helped several marginalised people liberate from "hell" they experienced in the world and "one should never forget that the RSS and Hindu Mahasabha had always opposed Ambedkar".

Delhi Hindu College Professor Ratan Lal said one line was hidden in Shah's remarks in which he invoked God and heaven and it also meant to say that those who chant Ambedkar's name would go to hell.

"They will make statues and bhavans in the name of Ambedkar but want to bury his teachings. It is clear now. Their issue was not with Mohd Ali Jinnah. Their issue was with Ambedkar and Jawaharlal Nehru. They were western educated, modern, secular and liberal. That was a problem for them," he said.

Dalit activist Prashant Anand recalled the 2018 Bharat Bandh called by NACDAOR against firing on Dalit activists and said the present protest would be wider and stronger.

Asked whether they would take legal recourse, Ratan Lal said it is not a legal issue but a "political, ideological and moral" question. "This is not just the fight of SCs and STs, it is an ideological warfare," he added.