Mumbai: The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) city (Mumbai) unit has announced a protest march on Saturday by like-minded organisations, intellectuals and social activists here on Saturday to condemn Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s remarks on B.R. Ambedkar and other issues, party leaders said here on Friday.
The procession will be start from Rajgriha, the memorial-cum-museum of B.R. Ambedkar in Dadar east to the Chaityabhoomi in Dadar west where the Chief Architect of the Indian Constitution was cremated on December 6, 1956.
CPI-M leaders like Prakash Reddy, Shyam Gaikwad, Shailendra Kamble, Raju Korde, Ajit Patil, Subodh More and others have appealed to the masses to participate in large numbers to protect the Constitution and Democracy through the march.
They said that the statements of HM Shah in Parliament earlier in the week are “an insult to Dr Ambedkar”, and the issue has even created a nationwide uproar with the Opposition INDIA bloc and other parties demanding his resignation or sack from the cabinet.
The CPI-M also condemned the repressions in Parbhani with the death of an activist, Somnath Suryawanshi protesting against the desecration of B.R. Ambedkar’s statue there on December 10, sparking massive protests, shutdown and violence a day later, which Maha Vikas Aghadi leaders termed as an attempt to incite another ‘Koregaon-Bhima’ (January 1, 2018) type of situation.
The CPI-M has said that HM Shah’s utterances have shocked all people, egalitarians, progressive and social organisations who love and work to save the Constitution and democracy.
“By insulting Dr. Ambedkar, Shah is secretly promoting unscientific and irrelevant ideas that are against the values enshrined in the Constitution. His behaviour is inconsistent with the very Constitution on which he took the oath as a Union Minister,” said the organisers.
Strongly condemning his insults to Dr. Ambedkar, the Leftists and progressives demanded that HM Shah must apologise to the whole nation in the Rajya Sabha itself, or he should quit as the Home Minister.
The CPI-M, Progressive Republican Alliance, Communist Party of India, Peasants & Workers Party, Dalit Panther Golden Jubilee Coordination Committee, Red Flag (Leninist), All India Forward Bloc, Constitution Conservation Committee, Friends of the People, Ambedkarite Women’s Organisation, National Secular Movement, Superstition Eradication Committee and various Ambedkarites, progressives, egalitarians, youth, students, women and Ambedkarite, egalitarian writers, artists, cultural workers shall participate in the procession on Saturday.
They will march carrying small statuettes of B.R. Ambedkar, posters, banners and placards with slogans on Democracy and Constitution, and related current topics that have shot to headlines in recent times.
Earlier, Ambedkar’s grandson and Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) President Prakash Ambedkar had strongly criticised HM Shah’s remarks – which the latter termed as blown out of context – organised protests and demanded strong action in the matter.
(IANS)
