Ambedkar Jayanti: BJP, Congress accuse each other of being anti-Dalit

Jangla (Chhattisgarh)/New Delhi: The battle for Ambedkar’s legacy continued unabated with both the Congress and the BJP intensifying their atte-mpts to embrace the social icon on his 127th birth anniversary on Saturday. Even as BJP and Congress leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Amit Shah and Rahul Gandhi, made a beeline to pay tributes to Ambedkar, both the parties accused each other of being anti-Dalit.

Paying glorious tribute to Ambedkar at a special function in the remote village of Jangla in Chhattisgarh, Mr Modi said “I am PM because of Babasaheb” as he helped a Dalit woman wear a pair of slippers.

Mr Modi, who was slated to present a pair of slippers to a tribal woman, surprised the crowd when he walked up to her, bent down and helped the bare-footed woman wear her new pair of slippers. The symbolic gesture received a loud applause.

“If a person of a humble background like me could become PM, it is because of Babasaheb Ambedkar”, Mr Modi said while rolling out Ayusman Bharat Yojana, popularly known as “Modicare”, in the tribal-dominated south Bastar district of Bijapur in Chattisgarh which is a Naxal-stronghold.