Mayawati says, Nobody calls Gandhiji, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. Not even BJP refers to Narendra Modi as Narendra Damodardas Modi. Then why play politics over Ambedkar’s name?
Caravan News
LUCKNOW — The Uttar Pradesh BJP government’s decision to insert ‘Ramji’ in the middle of the name of Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar has not gone down well with the Dalit leaders in the country; rather, it has started backfiring.
On Wednesday, the state government of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath issued instructions to all government offices and also to the Allahabad and Lucknow benches of the High Court to insert ‘Ramji’ as the middle name of Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar in government records. Citing Dr Ambedkar’s signature on an original copy of the Constitution of India, the Yogi government said his name would be written as Dr Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar from now on.
However, besides Opposition, Dalit leaders have strongly reacted on the move.
Also read: DALIT INTELLECTUALS SLAM YOGI GOVT MOVE ON AMBEDKAR NAME AS ‘POLL GIMMICK’
Leading the attack on Thursday, Bahujan Samaj Party chief and former four-time Chief Minister of the state, Mayawati said the BJP government was doing politics on the name of Dalit icon.
“The real problem of BJP and RSS is that people give so much respect to Ambedkar. They also don’t like the fact that crores of people call me Behenji out of respect just as people across the world, irrespective of their age, address a nurse as ‘sister’. Similarly, nobody calls Gandhiji, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. Not even BJP refers to Narendra Modi as Narendra Damodardas Modi. Then why play politics over Ambedkar’s name?” she asked.
Gujarat Dalit youth leader and MLA Jignesh Mevani, who had led a historic Dalit movement in Narendra Modi’s home state in 2016 following the public flogging of some Dalit youths in Una town, went a step ahead and asked people to call Yogi by his original name.
“UP government has decided to put Babasaheb Ambedkar’s father’s name “Ramji” as his middle name in all references to him in official correspondence and records. Request all sensible Indians to refer UP CM as Ajay Singh Bisht from now onwards,” tweeted Mevani on Friday.
