Sunil Tatkare | Babasaheb Ambedkar Gave Equal Voting Rights and Ensured India Remained United for Over 75 Years

By azad desk On May 4, 2024

Sunil Tatkare | Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) State President and candidate for Raigad Lok Sabha Constituency MP Sunil Tatkare said we owe a lot to Bharat Ratna Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar for maintaining India’s unity and its glorious history and giving equal voting rights to its citizens. He was speaking at the Mahayuti coalition public meeting held in Khed on Thursday evening.

“Since 1952, people have been choosing governments of their choice. Earlier, there were Congress governments, but after then-PM Indira Gandhi declared an emergency in India, people across the country agitated and started a movement under Jayprakash Narayan’s leadership. All political parties joined hands with the Janata Party and for the first time, a non-Congress government was formed and Indira and Sanjay Gandhi had to smell defeat,” Tatkare said. He added Rajiv Gandhi got the success that Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi could not attain. “After Indira Gandhi’s assassination, Congress won over 400 seats riding the sympathy wave. No leader could manage that Rajiv Gandhi did. However, after that, Congress popularity declined rapidly and even struggled to get 200 seats,” he said.

Tatkare went on to recall how the BJP supported Vishwanath Pratap Singh’s government who took the decision to implement the Mandal Commission. Following public outrage, the government was toppled, and Chandrashekhar’s government was formed with the support of Rajiv Gandhi, even though Chandrashekhar had publicly opposed Indira Gandhi. However, upon learning that Gandhi’s house was being monitored, he withdrew support leading to the Chandrashekhar government’s collapse within four months. “As a result, India faced elections again within two years. After that, Lok Sabha elections were held in 1996, 1998, and 1999. Vajpayee government was formed in 1999 while Dr Manmohan Singh enjoyed two terms in 2004 and 2009. After two terms, there was a wave of UPA but BJP strategically named Narendra Modi as the PM candidate. It was for the first time after the Gandhi-Nehru family that the elections got a PM face and since then BJP has formed the government,” he said.