New Delhi: Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal on Wednesday morning lashed out at Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav over a hoarding comparing the latter with Babasaheb Ambedkar, saying that it was "disrespect" to the architect of the Indian constitution.
Intensifying his attack against the former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Meghwal highlighted that Yadav was in alliance with Congress, which had a role in defeating Babasaheb in the 1952 elections. He said that Yadav's ideology doesn't match Babasaheb's since the former remains the chief of a political party headed by his family.
"Akhilesh Yadav and his family members have been advocates of OBC reservation. But if anybody staunchly opposed the OBC reservation, it was Rajiv Gandhi who gave a lengthy speech that ran for more than two hours in the Lok Sabha. Akhilesh is allied with the same Congress and calls himself similar to Babasaheb. This is Babasaheb's disrespect," Meghwal told reporters in a press conference here.
"Akhilesh Yadav is the chief of a family party, and Babasaheb was against nepotism... His ideologies do not match up with Babasaheb at all," he added.
The Union Minister further claimed that many from the Scheduled Caste (SC) community were demoted in huge numbers during Yadav's tenure as the Chief Minister. He also spoke about an SP MP "tearing" a bill on a reservation in promotion during the time of UPA II.
"Can't Akhilesh Yadav remember his tenure as the CM when engineers of the scheduled caste community were demoted in huge numbers? When a bill was about to be passed during UPA II about reservation in promotion, the one who tore up the bill in the Lok Sabha was an SP MP from Nagina," Meghwal said.
The hoarding, featuring half of Babasaheb Ambedkar's image alongside Akhilesh Yadav, has sparked a huge controversy in political circles, with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders attacking the Samajwadi Party (SP), accusing them of "insulting" Dr Ambedkar.
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