Congress did not give Ambedkar his due: Rijiju in Lok Sabha

Rijiju was the first speaker on the second day of the debate in the Lower House.

New Delhi: Ruling NDA and the Opposition crossed swords over Constitution once again in Lok Sabha on Saturday with Union Minister Kiren Rijiju accusing Congress of not giving B R Ambedkar his due and DMK's A Raja asking the BJP to spell out the contribution of the RSS and the Hindu Mahasabha in the making of the Constitution.

On the second day of the ‘Discussion on the Glorious Journey of 75 Years of the Constitution of India’, Rijiju was the first speaker and he rebutted the opposition's claims that minorities were being denied their rights.

He said minorities, including Muslims, were facing discrimination and hate crimes in many nations and referred to the situation in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan where minorities are facing persecution.

Cautioning that "our words and actions should not diminish the image of the country in the world fora", he said some claim that minorities have no rights in the country when India has given equal voting rights to all.

Alleging that the Congress made Ambedkar lose in the 1952 Lok Sabha elections, Rijiju said Ambedkar had remarked that while Jawaharlal Nehru delivered more than 2,000 speeches in 20 years, he never spoke about the welfare of Scheduled Castes "even once" and he was "always for Muslims".

Raja said the BJP should spell out the contribution of the RSS and the Hindu Mahasabha in the making of the Constitution. He claimed that the BJP would have changed the Constitution had the words "secular" and "socialist" not been added to the Preamble of the document during Emergency.

He said democracy alone was assaulted during Emergency, but under the BJP, the basic structure of the Constitution is under attack. "Democracy alone was assaulted during MISA, but in your regime, entire six elements (spelt out in the Kesavananda Bharati case), namely democracy, secularism, rule of law, equality, federalism, judicial impartiality, everything has gone," he said.

He also said the Congress was a "silent spectator" when he and his party colleague, K Kanimozhi, were put in jail in the 2G case. "When we were arrested, the Congress was in power. We never begged. When we were acquitted, you were in power. We never begged. We stand for what we are," he added.

TDP's L Srikrishna Devarayalu held the Congress responsible for dividing Andhra Pradesh against the wishes of the people of the state. "We have been hearing from the opposition that the Constitution is in danger. I would ask the Congress to look no further than 2013," he said.

AIMIM's Asaduddin Owaisi referred to the controversial Waqf (Amendment) Bill and said, "Article 26 gives religious denominations the right to establish and maintain institutions for religious and charitable purposes. The Prime Minister says that Waqf has nothing to do with the Constitution. Who is teaching the Prime Minister ? Make him read Article 26. The goal is to snatch away Waqf properties. You want to snatch it away on the basis of your strength."