Prakash Ambedkar: Government creating unsettling atmosphere over reservations

Prakash Ambedkar

Pune: Bharip Bahujan Mahasangh president Prakash Ambedkar today accused the government of creating an "unsettling" atmosphere in the country on the issue of reservations and urged the Dalits not to respond to "provocations".

He was speaking at a congregation of organisations of nomadic tribes from Maharashtra. It was Ambedkar's first public appearance since his name allegedly cropped up in one of the documents reportedly seized by the Pune police from five persons in connection with the Elgar Parishad organised in Pune on December 31 last year.

According to the police, the five persons have "close Maoist links". Ambedkar refused to speak on the issue, saying he would put forward his views on it at a press conference in Mumbai on June 13.

"In Madhya Pradesh, people from the RSS, Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad are performing yagna and also agitating, seeking to put an end to reservations.

"A move is being made against reservations by pitting the anti-reservation lobby against the pro-reservation one," he said.
Ambedkar claimed that Muslims were "initially incited", but when they stopped reacting, these people started targeting those who were "pro-reservation".

"I fear this will lead to riots between these two groups (pro-reservation and anti-reservation). But the government wants riots to take place on the issue of reservations and this is its agenda. So, I appeal to the people not to react to the provocations," he said.

Ambedkar said by pitting the groups against each other, the government was creating an "unsettling" atmosphere in the country.

He further alleged that the government wanted the system to "fail" so that it could impose Emergency. The government, Ambedkar alleged, would then use the imposition of Emergency to ensure that no elections were held.

"We will give them a befitting reply by confronting them in the elections and conquering power," he added. Ambedkar also criticised former president Pranab Mukherjee for attending an RSS event.

Mukherjee had attended the valedictory function of the RSS's "Sangh Shiksha Varg" at Nagpur on June 6.

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