CPI, RJD activists ’purify’ Ambedkar statue with holy water after Giriraj Singh garlands

Mangalore Today News Network

New Delhi, Feb 15, 2020: In yet another shocker from Bihar’s Begusarai, a few CPI and RJD workers purified a statue of BR Ambedkar alleging that it was defiled by Union Minister and local BJP MP Giriraj Singh, a popular Hindutva hardline, Zee reported.

 

The incident happened at a park named after the architect of the Constitution in the Ballia block of the district where Singh had gone on Friday (Feb 14) and garlanded the statue before addressing a rally in support of the Citizenship Amendment Act. Around 24 hours later, local CPI leader Sanoj Saroj and RJD’s Vikas Paswan and Rup Narayan Paswan, who have been staging an anti-CAA demonstration nearby for close to a fortnight, arrived with a bucket full of water drawn from the holy river.

Bihar: CPI (Communist Party of India) & RJD (Rashtriya Janata Dal) workers washed the statue of BR Ambedkar (in pic 3), after Union Minister Giriraj Singh garlanded the statue in Begusarai. (14.02.2020) pic.twitter.com/opwCPqpaAN

— ANI (@ANI) February 15, 2020

They then sprinkled the Gangajal on the statue and chanted ’Jai Bhim’ in praise of ’Phule’ while washing the idol thoroughly. A video of the RJD and CPI workers performing the ’purification’ act was also shot and shared on social media. In the video clip, they can be heard saying that ’Giriraj polluted the atmosphere when he came here and said, in his speech, that Ballia has become mini Pakistan’.

The protesters alleged that Giriraj stood for everything that Ambedkar had fought against and therefore his garlanding of the statue was tantamount to ’defiling it’.

The BJP MP was not available for comments as he has reportedly left for the national capital.

Notably, the assembly election in Bihar will be held in October 2020 to elect 243 members of the state Legislative Assembly. The term of current assembly elected in 2015 will expire on November 29, 2020.