New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is meeting Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge to discuss the selection of the next Chairperson for the National Human Rights Commission.
Mr Gandhi and Mr Kharge are members – as Leaders of the Opposition in Parliament – of the committee that is led by the PM and which will oversee this critical appointment.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla were also present.
The meeting comes as a fractured and disrupted winter session of Parliament – marked by the introduction of the contentious ‘one nation, one election’ bill and a stormy debate on the 75th anniversary of the Constitution – enters its final 72 hours; the session concludes December 20.
It also comes amid furious protests by the Congress and other opposition parties over comments made last evening by Mr Shah, in concluding remarks on the debate on the Constitution. The Home Minister ripped into the Congress for repeatedly invoking Dr Ambedkar’s name before and during the debate.
To invoke his name has become the “fashion”, Mr Shah remarked sarcastically, declaring, “Itna naam agar bhagwan ka lete to saat janmon tak swarg mil jata (…if they took God’s name so many times, they would have got a place in heaven).”
Mr Shah then said the Congress’ insistence on praising Dr Ambedkar, the architect of India’s Constitution, was at odds with the Dalit icon’s “disagreements” with the Nehru-led Congress government of the time. “Ambedkarji said several times he was not satisfied with the treatment of Scheduled Castes and Tribes,” Mr Shah claimed to vociferous jeers from the opposition.
Mr Shah then said the Congress’ insistence on praising Dr Ambedkar, the architect of India’s Constitution, was at odds with the Dalit icon’s “disagreements” with the Nehru-led Congress government of the time. “Ambedkarji said several times he was not satisfied with the treatment of Scheduled Castes and Tribes,” Mr Shah claimed to vociferous jeers from the opposition.
This morning, in a sign the ferocity of the opposition party’s protests had perhaps unsettled the government, the Prime Minister responded to the criticism of his No 2, telling the Congress it was “gravely mistaken” if they thought “malicious lies” could hide its insulting of Dr Ambedkar.