NAGPUR, Oct 13:
Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde today said communal forces should ask themselves why Babasaheb Ambedkar chose to convert to Buddhism, and asserted that such elements would not be allowed to prevail.
Shinde said this in his speech after inaugurating the ‘Statue of Freedom of Press’ at the Lokmat Media’s printing plant at Butibori near here.
“It was on this day that Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar parted ways with the communally bias society and converted his followers. The society today needs to contemplate over the reasons behind Dr Ambedkar’s decision to start conversion.
“In the recent past communal forces have once again started to resurface. But, we came in to power as a secular front and in no circumstances would we allow such forces to prevail,” he said.
Ambedkar converted to Buddhism along with lakhs of his followers in Nagpur in 1956.
It is high time the communal forces introspected on this, Shinde said.
Shinde also said that a country such as America has been shut down due to the economic downturn, but not a single employee has been discontinued in India.
“It is unfair to judge the government on basis of a 4.5 per cent growth rate as the parameters of development are far more diverse then just this,” he said.
While speaking about the ‘Freedom of Press’ statue, the Home Minister said it was a true representation of freedom of the entire media.
Shinde said till now America boasted of the Statue of Liberty but today the “world’s biggest democracy has given the world the first Statue of Freedom of Press”.
Lokmat Group Chairman and MP Vijay Darda, Maharashtra Minister for Social Justice Shivajirao Moghe, EGS Minister Nitin Raut, local MP Vilas Muttemwar, Wardha MP Datta Meghe were among those present. (PTI)
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