Modi, who laid the foundation for a memorial to Ambedkar, the architect of Indian Constitution, said, “Every time when a BJP government is in power, a group of liars spreads the malicious propaganda that we are out to scrap reservations …It happened during the Atal Bihari Vajapayee government’s time as well”. Mr Modi also declared November 26 as “Constitution Day”, as it was on November 26, 1949 that the Constituent Assembly adopted the Constitution of India, that came into effect on January 26, 1950.
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Addressing a public meeting in Mumbai while inaugurating Babasaheb Ambedkar’s Memorial, Modi said, “Opposition is spreading the rumours that BJP was against reservation”.
The memorial will cover about 7.4 hectares of the Indu Mill land, acquired from the National Textile Corporation by the state government for the project. “However, this is something which Babasaheb Ambedkar has given us and no power can take it away”, he stressed, ruling out any possibility of scrapping the reservations system.
“Babasaheb Ambedkar is an inspiration not just for one community but for the entire world”, he said.
Kumar said, “If Modi thinks that Bhagwat’s comment is questionable, let him say it was wrong”. “Besides, 400 railway stations in the heart of cities will also be developed in a big way with multi-storeyed buildings and other facilities”, Modi said.
At the airport, he was received by Maharashtra Governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao and Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. Interestingly, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, not on the best of terms with the BJP, is likely to skip the events and visit the drought-hit Marathawada region. He should have personally invited NCP president Sharad Pawar who had championed the cause of Indu Mills. “We regret Maharashtra government’s attempts to politicize it by portraying it as a BJP function”, ssaid senior state Congress leader and legislator Sanjay Dutt. Mumbai Congress president Sanjay Nirupam thanked Modi for “carrying forward” the party’s project to make the world-class Ambedkar Memorial today.
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Differences between the BJP and the Shiv Sena – long-time allies in Maharashtra, and partners in the National Democratic Alliance both in the state and at the centre – have sunk to new lows in the recent past.
