Row over Shah’s Ambedkar remarks: Dalit, Adivasi, OBC groups to protest in Gujarat on Dec 28

Ahmedabad, Dec 26 (PTI) Dalit, Adivasi and Other Backward Classes outfits in Gujarat will join the December 28 nationwide protests against Union Home Minister Amit Shah for his remarks on Babasaheb Ambedkar in Parliament, Congress MLA Jignesh Mevani said on Thursday.

A non-political rally will be held by Dalit, Adivasi and OBC outfits from Khokhra area till the statue of Ambedkar in Sarangpur on December 28 to seek Shah’s resignation, said Mevani, the working president of Gujarat Congress.

Shah, while speaking in Parliament, had claimed it was now a fashion to invoke Ambedkar’s name, Mevani said.

“I want to tell him that Ambedkar is our passion, not fashion, because he dreamt of creating a just and equal society,” Mevani said, adding Shah was yet to apologise despite the uproar across the country over his remarks.

The police is yet to give permission for the rally on December 28, the Dalit MLA added.

“Protests will be held across Gujarat if Shah does not tender his resignation after the December 28 rally,” Mevani asserted.

Shah, who made the remarks in Rajya Sabha on December 17, had earlier said the Congress distorted his statement since the discussion on the Constitution established the opposition party as being “anti-Ambedkar and anti-reservation”.