MUMBAI: Jagdeep Dhankhar, on his visit to Mumbai on Sunday, took tangential swipes at Lok Sabha leader of the opposition Rahul Gandhi and former Congress prime ministers Indira and Rajiv Gandhi, alleging that they were “anti-reservation”. The vice-president was at the Elphinstone Technical High School and Junior College to inaugurate one of the ‘Constitution temples’ in 434 industrial training institutes across the state.
Delivering his chief guest address at the inauguration of the Samvidhan Mandir at Elphinstone, Dhankar spoke about “the mentality that denied a Bharat Ratna to Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar and was the cause of the non-implementation of the Mandal Commission recommendations for nearly 10 years”. “This pattern of prejudice against reservation has been handed over to a person holding a constitutional position, who is making serialised anti-India rants on foreign soil and is talking about ending reservations,” he said.
The context of Dhankar’s attack was Rahul’s recent visit to the US where he said that the Congress would think of scrapping reservations “when India is a fair place”, which, he added, was not the case right now. At a press interaction in the US later, Gandhi had said he had been misquoted to show that he was against reservations. “I have been saying again and again and again that we are going to increase reservations beyond 50 per cent,” he clarified.
Referring to Rahul’s holding up a copy of the Constitution during the Lok Sabha poll campaign, saying that the BJP wanted to change it and end reservations, Dhankar said that “some political leaders” were merely “flaunting” the Constitution. “The Constitution is not to be flaunted like a book,” he said. “It has to be respected. It has to be read. It has to be understood. Merely presenting the Constitution as a book and showcasing it is not something any civilised, knowledgeable person who reveres the essence of the Constitution will accept.”
The vice-president asked why the Bharat Ratna was not awarded to B R Ambedkar, architect of the Indian Constitution, earlier. “Another significant issue related to the anti-Ambedkar mindset is the Mandal Commission report,” he said. “After this report was presented, for the next 10 years and during that decade when Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi were prime ministers, not a single move was made to implement it.”
For good measure, Dhankar moved to the 1975 Emergency, saying that Indira Gandhi had “shattered the dreams of Dr Ambedkar” by subverting the Constitution. “The current government, therefore, has recognised June 25 as Samvidhaan Hatya Diwas (Constitution Murder Day) to ensure that the present generation does not forget the hardships faced during that heart-wrenching time when constitutional processes were ignored,” he said.
Dhankhar exhorted the youth to rebuff “the frontal attack on our democratic and constitutional values”. He then quoted B R Ambedkar: “India has once before lost her independence by the infidelity and treachery of some of her own people. Will history repeat itself? Will Indians place the country above their creed or will they place the creed above country? But this much is certain—that if the parties place creed above country, our independence will be put in jeopardy a second time and probably be lost forever.”
Maharashtra governor C P Radhakrishnan, union minister Ramdas Athawale, skill development and entrepreneurship minister Mangal Prabhat Lodha and others attended. Police sources said the whole venue leaked and rainwater inside the pandal caused inconvenience to the attendees.
