Telangana Urges Centre To Name New Parliament After Ambedkar

The Telangana Assembly on Tuesday unanimously passed a resolution urging the union government to name the new Parliament building after the architect of the Indian Constitution Dr B R Ambedkar.

Minister for IT and Industries K T Rama Rao moved the resolution in the House. The Opposition parties, including the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) and the Congress, extended their support to the resolution.

None of the BJP legislators was present in the House for the resolution.

Speaker P Srinivas Reddy announced the passing of the resolution unanimously by a voice vote.

Speaking on the occasion, Rao said that Ambedkar had shown direction to the country, and that there was no better person than him for the new Parliament building to be named after.

He pointed out that Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao had spoken elaborately about the greatness of the Bharat Ratna recipient just on Monday. Ambedkar had fought against all kinds of discrimination; worked to strengthen social justice, democracy and national integration in the country; and was a firm believer in equality, Rao said, and claimed that his party the TRS and its leader KCR had followed the principles of Ambedkar to achieve statehood for Telangana through a 14-year-long struggle. He added that if there were no Article 3 in the Constitution of India scripted by Ambedkar, there would have been no new States.

The minister also quoted Ambedkar extensively in his speech. He pointed out that Ambedkar had said that if he found the Constitution misused, he would be the first person to burn it, and that any tyranny by the majority would not be allowed. The minister also quoted Ambedkar's definition of democracy as a method of government through which revolutionary changes in the economic and social lives of the people were brought about without bloodshed. And the minister also repeated Ambedkar's statement that the Constitution was only as good as the people who implemented it.

Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka and AIMIM MLA Ahmed Balala backed the resolution.