A controversy erupted in Madhya Pradesh after a portrait of India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, positioned behind the Speaker’s seat, was replaced with that of BR Ambedkar. Alleging a “conspiracy” by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to change the history, Congress said the party MPs will raise the matter in the House. Congress also said they welcome the move to install a portrait of BR Ambedkar but that of Jawaharlal Nehru should not be taken down.
“It was a conspiracy of the BJP to change history. We welcome the move to install the poster of BR Ambedkar but it is highly objectionable that they removed the picture of Nehru. Nehru was a freedom fighter and his contribution towards India can’t be ignored like that. We will raise a demand to put a poster of Nehru again in the House,” Congress MLA Ajay Singh said.
The first session of the 16th Madhya Pradesh assembly began here on Monday with pro tem speaker Gopal Bhargava welcoming the newly-elected members to the house and starting the process of administering them oath. The four-day winter session commenced nearly a week after a new BJP government under Chief Minister Mohan Yadav took office.
MP Legislative Assembly principal secretary AP Singh said that the portrait of Jawaharlal Nehru was taken down as it was in a bad shape. He said it was the former Speaker’s decision to put up BR Ambedkar’s poster.
“The posters were in a bad shape so previous speaker Girish Gautam had taken a decision in July this year to replace them. It was his decision to put a poster of Father of Indian Constitution BR Ambedkar in the House,” he said.
On Monday, CM Mohan Yadav, Leader of Opposition (LoP) Umang Singhar, deputy chief ministers Jagdish Devda, Rajendra Shukla, former CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Narendra Singh Tomar, Kailash Vijayvargiya, Prahlad Patel and Jayant Maliya (all four from BJP) and Ajay Singh (Congress) took oath as MLAs of 16th Assembly.
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Published: 18 Dec 2023, 10:57 PM IST