BJP-BSP fight it out over Ambedkar's name change

The Uttar Pradesh government on Friday denied the opposition's charges that its move to add 'Ramji' to the name of Dalit icon Bhimrao Ambedkar was politically motivated.

The state government shared with the media a postal stamp of 1991 when the then Congress government at the Centre had 'Ramji' in the name.

"His full name is Dr Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar and we have only done what is factual and correct," said a minister on Friday, adding that the opposition was being unfair in seeing everything through the prism of electoral politics.

The BJP government in the state earlier this week issued an order, seeking the change of the name of the architect of the Indian Constitution from the hitherto used Bhim Rao Ambedkar to Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar.

This triggered a political storm as opposition parties, led by the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), accused the government of distorting historical things for petty political gains.

BSP supremo Mayawati has said the BJP was engaged in a political drama.

She also mentioned how neither Mahatma Gandhi (whose full name is Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi) nor in present times the Prime Minister (whose full name is Narendra Damodar Das Modi) have ever been addressed by their full names.

This, the four-time Chief Minister alleged, was being done to come across as champion of the Dalits and to cause confusion.

--IANS

md/him/vm