Congress insulted Ambedkar, never gave Sardar Patel his due: BJP reacts to Congress’s resolution on Patel

Union Minister of State (I/C) for Law Arjun Ram Meghwal. File

Union Minister of Law Arjun Ram Meghwal on Tuesday (April 8, 2025) said that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had insulted the Constitution framer B.R. Ambedkar by asserting the Constitution of India was “a thousand years old”, and it was tantamount to undermining Ambedkar’s legacy.

Mr. Gandhi had made the remark during a programme in Bihar on Monday.

Also Read | Mallikarjun Kharge slams BJP for appropriating Patel’s legacy, recalls he banned RSS

“By saying this, Rahul Gandhi has undermined the actual framer of the Indian Constitution, Babasaheb Ambedkar,” Mr. Meghwal said. The Congress, he added, “has always belittled him (Ambedkar)“.

Mr. Meghwal also hit back at Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge for claiming that Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel’s ideology was opposed to that of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) as Mr. Kharge had accused the BJP of trying to appropriate Patel’s legacy.

“Congress has never given Sardar Patel his due. The Congress had no regard for Patel as Nehru did not like him,” Mr. Meghwal said, citing a book by Sardar Patel’s daughter Maniben Patel to allege that Sardar Patel had been insulted by the Congress party.

“Since the Congress is holding its convention in Gujarat, Kharge and his colleagues should have at least paid tributes at his statue in Kevadia if they have respect for him,” he added.

Mr. Meghwal said that Sardar Patel symbolised nationalist values, something that the RSS also believed in.

“It was Sardar Patel who sent the Army to Kashmir and played a role in the reconstruction of the Somnath temple,” the Minister said.

Accusing the BJP-RSS of carrying out a “well-planned conspiracy” against national heroes, Mr. Kharge had asserted that Sardar Patel’s ideology was contrary to the RSS’s ideas. The Congress president had said it was laughable that the RSS, which “has no contribution” in the Indian freedom struggle, today claimed Sardar Patel’s legacy.

The Congress is holding an extended session of the Congress Working Committee in Ahmedabad, which has passed a special resolution on Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, India’s first Union Home Minister to “highlight his ideological fight against the RSS”.