Prakash Ambedkar lauds V P Singh for widening reservation policy

Mumbai: Accusing the Congress of suppressing the Mandal Commission report, veteran politician Prakash Ambedkar on Wednesday paid glowing tributes to Vishwanath Pratap Singh for widening the reservation policy when he was the Prime Minister and conferring Bharat Ratna to Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, the chief architect of Constitution of India.

“I pay humble tributes to former Prime Minister of India, my friend and colleague Vishwanath Pratap Singh ji on his birth anniversary today. VP Singh and I were very close friends and our friendship fostered solidarity and facilitated social and political change…our friendship fostered solidarity and facilitated social and political change,” said Ambedkar, the founder of Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi.

The 70-year-old, two-time Lok Sabha MP and one-term Rajya Sabha MP, is the grandson of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar.

Ambedkar said he had requested the then PM that the SC converts to Buddhism be given reservations under the SC category, and the central government welfare policies and scholarships be extended to the Buddhists.

“VP Singh accepted my request and made the amendments to extend the reservation policy to SC Buddhist converts and welfare policy to Buddhists,” he said.

Slamming the Congress, Ambedkar said, “Congress had suppressed the Mandal Commission. V P Singh did the historic work of implementing the Mandal Commission recommendations and 27 percent reservations for OBCs. He took a strong stand that even if his government is brought down, he will give reservation to the OBCs.

"Ultimately, his government was brought down by the BJP, who was giving outside support.”

“After VP Singh ji became the Prime Minister, I requested that Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar be awarded the Bharat Ratna by his government. On March 31, 1990, Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar was awarded the Bharat Ratna posthumously — 36 years after the Bharat Ratna award was created and 33 years after his Mahaparinirvan. An oil portrait of Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar was installed in the Central Hall of the Indian Parliament April 12, 1990. It is unfortunate that it took 40 years to install the oil portrait of Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar, who gave the Constitution to the country. This historic work was done by V. P. Singh when he was the Prime Minister upon my and my friends request.”

“Maisaheb Ambedkar was illegally evicted out of the Babasaheb’s Alipore House by the Congress-supported Jindal Steel family. Congress-supported Jindal Steel destroyed Babasaheb’s writings, papers and later demolished the house. I will write about this later in my posts. In 1989-90, I, along with the Ambedkarite community, requested that the Government of India acquire the property. The process of acquiring the property was initiated by VP Singh,” Ambedkar said in a post on X.

He also said VP Singh participated in the historic Shivaji Park meeting of the 'Bahujan Shramik Mahapanchayat', the third front, which was created ahead of the Maharashtra Assembly elections in 1995.