PM Modi should apologise for supporting instead of sacking Amit Shah for Ambedkar remarks: Congress

The Congress Friday demanded Prime Minister Narendra Modi apologise to the country for supporting, rather than sacking, Union home minister Amit Shah for allegedly insulting Dr Bhimrao 'Babasaheb' Ambedkar while making a speech in the Rajya Sabha.

The Congress also slammed the ruling party over the Thursday scuffle on the Parliament premises between some ruling and Opposition MPs, and demanded that 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 party headquarters in Delhi, Congress deputy leader in the Rajya Sabha Pramod Tiwari and deputy leader in the Lok Sabha Gaurav Gogoi said the ruling party orchestrated the entire scuffle with the sole purpose of distracting attention from the issue of Shah's alleged insult to Babasaheb Ambedkar.

They said the Opposition is persistent in 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, adding that this was 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 Parliament's Makar Dwar in which two BJP MPs claimed to be injured and were 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 Congress MP and Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition 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 said the entry gate was blocked, and women members of the Congress and other opposition parties threatened and pushed around by ruling party members as they were trying to enter the House. Tiwari alleged that even 83-year-old Rajya Sabha MP and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge was pushed down.

Gogoi said the Congress will stick to its demand that the home minister resign and apologise for "hurting the sentiments" of many Indians who hold Babasaheb Ambedkar and the Indian Constitution in the highest regard.

"It is unfortunate that the prime minister instead of asking the Union home minister to resign... and apologise, is supporting him. The prime minister should also feel some regret and express his regret in front of the Indian public," the Congress leader said. "If the BJP thinks that Rahul Gandhi will bow down because of the FIR, then they are under a misconception."

Gogoi alleged that the Modi government "kept running away" from the Adani issue throughout the winter session, and PM Modi said nothing about Manipur during his two-hour speech in the Lok Sabha.

Also, during the debate on the 75 years of the Constitution, the BJP exhibited its "mindset" towards Babasaheb to the whole world, he said. "We have never behaved disrespectfully towards the ruling party. But what the ruling party MPs did to us yesterday was extremely sad," he said.

"Amit Shah could have taken moral responsibility for this incident and resigned from his post. What kind of friendship is this, due to which Narendra Modi is forced to support Amit Shah?" he asked. "No matter how hard they try, they cannot hide those 12 seconds of insulting Babasaheb in the House," Gogoi said.