Congress reiterates demand for PM Modi’s apology for Shah’s alleged derogatory remarks against Ambedkar

NEW DELHI: The Congress on Friday reiterated its demand that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should apologise to the country for supporting, rather than sacking, Home Minister Amit Shah for allegedly insulting Babasaheb Ambedkar during his speech in Rajya Sabha.

The Congress also criticised the BJP over the Thursday scuffle on the Parliament premises between some ruling and opposition MPS, and demanded the entire CCTV footage covering Parliament’s Makar Dwar be secured and made public to ascertain who pushed whom.

The Congress alleged the BJP was not letting Parliament function and conspiring to stop opposition MPs from entering the House on Thursday.

Addressing a joint press conference at the AICC headquarters here, Congress deputy leader in Rajya Sabha Pramod Tiwari and deputy leader in Lok Sabha Gaurav Gogoi said the ruling party orchestrated the whole scuffle with the sole purpose of distracting attention from the issue of Amit Shah’s alleged insult to Babasaheb Ambedkar.

They said the opposition is persistent with its demand for the home minister’s resignation and apology to the country for “hurting” the sentiments of the people who revere Ambedkar.

“The prime minister should apologise for insulting Babasaheb Ambedkar as he is equally responsible by supporting Home Minister Amit Shah instead of sacking him,” Tiwari said.

Tiwari said this is not the first time in the history of democracy that the ruling party did not allow the House to function for an entire first week. Referring to the scuffle at the Parliament’s Makar Dwar in which two BJP MPs were injured and have been hospitalised, he said, “Our demand is that the CCTV footage of the place where the incident took place be sealed and released. You will clearly see that the MPs were stopped from entering the House.”

The police have already registered an FIR against Rahul Gandhi, but Tiwari asked what happened to the Congress’ complaint that BJP MPs caused hurt to Congress members. No FIR has been registered, he said.

He claimed the entry gate was blocked, and women members of the Congress and other opposition parties were threatened and pushed around by ruling party members when they were trying to enter the House. He alleged that even 83-year-old Rajya Sabha MP and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge

was pushed down.