KCR Has No Moral Right To Unveil Ambedkar Statue: Bandi Sanjay

Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao had no moral right to unveil the statue of Dr B R Ambedkar, as the former had never cared for the departed leader and had in fact humiliated dalits on every possible occasion, BJP Telangana president Bandi Sanjay said today.

Speaking to media persons after paying homage at the Ambedkar statue at Tank Bund and later at the party office in the city, Sanjay said that KCR owed an explanation to the dalits on his absence at Ambedkar's birth and death anniversary programs held in the last nine years.

"Before unveiling the statue of Ambedkar, KCR has to first tender an unconditional apology to the dalits for not fulfilling the promise of giving each of them three acres of land, and for failing to make a dalit the first Chief Minister of Telangana. He should also apologise for insulting the Constitution of India drafted by Babasaheb," he added.

Asserting that the BJP was not against the installation of the Ambedkar statue near NTR Gardens, Sanjay said that he wanted to only know why the KCR government had delayed the project. The BJP leaders had visited the spot several times and had exposed the inordinate delay in the completion of the project, he claimed.

"It is quite obvious that KCR is inaugurating the statue this year only to garner the votes of the dalits in the coming elections. He had done the same thing in the past by holding the P V Narasimha Rao birth anniversary celebrations to appease voters in the MLC elections, but after that stopped attending the birth and death anniversaries of the former Prime Minister," he said.

Sanjay also ridiculed the advertisements given to the media claiming that the Dalit Bandhu scheme was a torchbearer for the entire country. "If KCR is sincere, he should release a White Paper on how many dalits have been given assistance under the Dalit Bandhu scheme so far," he said.

Sanjay also claimed that the State government had not been releasing funds under the Arogyasri and fee reimbursement schemes, which were aimed at benefiting the SCs, STs and BCs. "The same is the case with Dalit Bandhu," he claimed.

He said that the dalit society would not pardon KCR and his family despite all these gimmicks. He also claimed that only the BJP had been sincerely following the ideals for which Ambedkar had fought. As Ambedkar had wanted, the BJP government had abolished Article 370, provided loans to 1.25 lakh dalits to make them industrialists, made dalits Presidents of India, inducted 12 dalits into the union cabinet, and provided benefits to them under Jan Dhan Yojana.

"If the BJP is voted to power, we shall rule the state in accordance with the ideals of Ambedkar," he added.