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The meeting was to select the next chairperson of National Human Rights Commission. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and senior leader Rahul Gandhi attended as leaders of opposition in Parliament
Congress’ Rahul Gandhi and PM Modi
Amid a massive row over Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s alleged insult of Dr BR Ambedkar in Parliament, leaders of the opposition in the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi, met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday.
Sources, however, said the meeting was to select the next chairperson of National Human Rights Commission (NHRC). Kharge and Gandhi also attended in capacity of their positions in Parliament.
According to the law governing NHRC, while the committee which selects its chief is headed by the prime minister, it has the Lok Sabha Speaker, home minister, leader of opposition in Lok Sabha, leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha and deputy chairperson of Rajya Sabha as its members.
The post of NHRC chairperson has been vacant since Justice (retd) Arun Kumar Mishra completed his tenure on June 1. A former judge of the Supreme Court, Justice Mishra served as the eighth chairperson of the rights panel and was appointed to its top post in June 2021.
Vijaya Bharathi Sayani, an NHRC member, became its acting chairperson after Justice Mishra demitted office. A former CJI or a retired judge of the SC are appointed as NHRC chairperson by the president on the recommendation of the selection committee.
The NHRC meeting came minutes after Modi attacked Congress over the Ambedkar row and said the party is “gravely mistaken” if it thinks it can hide its “misdeeds of several years”.
He stoutly defended Shah from the Congress charge that he insulted Ambedkar in his speech in the Rajya Sabha, asserting that he, in fact, exposed the party’s “dark history of insulting” the architect of the Constitution.
Both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha saw disruptions in the proceedings of the ongoing winter session due to the ruckus over the home minister’s remarks on Ambedkar.
WHAT IS THE CONTROVERSY?
Speaking in the Rajya Sabha during the constitution debate on Tuesday, Shah’s remarks took a swipe at the Opposition.
“Abhi ek fashion ho gaya hai – Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar. Itna naam agar bhagwan ka lete to saat janmon tak swarg mil jata (It has become a fashion to say Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar’. If they had taken God’s name so many times, they would have got a place in heaven),” Shah had said.
Shah attacked the Congress party, saying it treated the Constitution as the “private fiefdom” of one family and “played fraud” with the Parliament.
Concluding a two-day debate on the “Glorious Journey of 75 Years of the Constitution of India”, Shah ripped into the Congress for its appeasement politics and claimed that the party wanted to breach the 50% quota limit to provide reservation to Muslims.
He also asked the Congress party if it supported the Muslim personal law and alleged that the party never worked for the welfare of the backward classes.
Shah asserted that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has already brought in a common civil code (Uniform Civil Code) in Uttarakhand and will implement it in all states.
Congress Demands Shah’s Resignation
The Congress on Wednesday demanded the resignation of Home Minister Amit Shah for his remarks in the Rajya Sabha which it claimed were an insult to BR Ambedkar. The opposition party also demanded that Shah should apologise publicly and in Parliament for the remarks.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said, “The ‘insult’ caused to Babasaheb Ambedkar by Amit Shah is wrong. I demand his resignation.”
“Shah has insulted Babasaheb and the Constitution written by him,” Kharge, who was flanked by other opposition leaders, charged.
“The ideology of Manusmriti and RSS shows that they do not want to give respect to Babasaheb Ambedkar and the Constitution. That is why we, all parties, demand his resignation and he should apologise to the country,” the Congress chief said.
“If he continues to talk like this, there will be fire across the country if anyone insults Babasaheb Ambedkar like this. We parties would not accept such an insult of Babasaheb Ambedkar,” he said.
