Time to reaffirm ideals of liberty, equality, fraternity: Congress pays tributes to Ambedkar

Congress on Tuesday paid rich tributes to BR Ambedkar on his death anniversary, with the party's SC department choosing the day to launch its YouTube channel and party chief Mallikarjun Kharge urging people to reaffirm the ideals of liberty, equality, fraternity and justice.

Kharge along with former party chief Sonia Gandhi and party's Lok Sabha leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury also paid floral tributes at the statue of Ambedkar in Parliament, where a large number of people paid their respects to the father of Indian Constitution and Dalit icon.

At the Bharat Jodo Yatra camp site in Rajasthan, Rahul and others, including Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and Congress General Secretaries KC Venugopal (Organisation) and Randeep Surjewala paid tributes to Ambedkar.

Quoting Ambedkar, Kharge tweeted, "we are Indians, firstly and lastly" and went on to say, "on the Mahaparinirvan Diwas of Babasaheb, it is time to reaffirm the ideals of — liberty, equality, fraternity and justice, which he truly championed. Social transformation is the foundation for any progress."

Senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi tweeted, "we are all, firstly and lastly, equals. We are all, firstly and lastly, Indians. Anything contrary to this, was unacceptable to Babasaheb, and is unacceptable to us who walk on his constitutional path. Humblest tributes to him, on his Mahaparinirvan Diwas," Gandhi said on Twitter.

The Congress, from its official Twitter handle, tweeted, "Baba Saheb devoted his life to liberating the socially backward from illiteracy and ignorance & paved the way for a society built through liberty, equality, and fraternity."

Congress SC Department also chose Ambedkar's 'Mahaparinivan Diwas' for launching its YouTube channel ‘Bahujan ki Awaaz.’

Congress has been accusing the BJP of not respecting the ideals of Ambedkar though it "pretends" to celebrate him.

On November 26 in Madhya Pradesh's Mhow, where Ambedkar was born, Rahul said the RSS-BJP people folded their hand before BR Ambedkar to woo Dalits but they actually stabbed him from behind, a repeat of what they attempted to do with the legacy of Mahatma Gandhi.

After referring to how the RSS-BJP is attempting to woo ‘Adivasis’ but by referring to them as ‘vanvasis’, Rahul had said that they were doing the same thing with Dalits and went on to say, “they are trying to attract Dalits to their fold. For that, they show respect to Ambedkar. The Constitution was Ambedkar's life's work but they were dismantling it. The RSS people fold their hands in front of Ambedkar but stab him from behind."

Rahul had visited Mhow as part of Bharat Jodo Yatra and had said that he insisted that Mhow, Ambedkar's birthplace, should be part of the route and they tweaked their initial yatra route. Rahul and Kharge also visited Ambedkar memorial in Mhow as well as addressed a public meeting.