Press Statement issued by Shri L.K. Advani, Leader of the Opposition (Lok Sabha) At a press conference in Nagpur (Maharashtra) on religion-based reservations : April 21, 2006

21-04-2006
Press Release

My questions to Smt. Sonia Gandhi & Dr. Manmohan Singh on religion-based reservations

  • Aren’t you defying the unanimous view of Pandit Nehru, Sardar Patel and Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar?
  • Aren’t you altering the ‘Basic Spirit’ of the Indian Constitution?

I am in Nagpur on the 12th day of my 35-day Bharat Suraksha Yatra, which I have undertaken jointly with my Party President Shri Rajnath Singh. Today is the last day of my Yatra in Maharashtra. The Yatra has covered the state in two separate legs – first in Mumbai and western Maharashtra and now in Vidarbha. I am deeply moved by the response the Yatra has received in both regions. I express my feelings of gratitude to the people of Maharashtra for their enthusiastic support.

 

 

Nagpur is the karma bhoomi of two great sons of modern India – Dr. B.R. Ambedkar and Parampujya Guruji Golwalkar, second Sarsanghchalak of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. In the course of my Yatra, I had an occasion to pay homage to Dr. Ambedkar on his birth anniversary (April 14) by visiting Chaitya Bhoomi (where his Samadhi is located) on Dadar beach in Mumbai. I have also visited the Deeksha Bhoomi in Nagpur several times. The Constitution of India, of which he was the architect, remains his priceless and enduring gift to the Nation. His lifelong mission for justice to the downtrodden has been a source of inspiration and guidance to me.

 

 

Shri Guruji was an embodiment of the vision of resurgent nationalism, deeply rooted in the cultural and spiritual soil of India. He combined within himself a saintly personality and the abilities of a brilliant organiser who built the RSS into a mighty force of selfless swayamsevaks dedicated to the defense and all-round development of India. I pay my humble tributes to him on the occasion of his birth centenary. Since the thoughts and deeds of Guruji have been deliberately distorted by our ideological adversaries, I appeal to all fair-minded people in the intelligentsia and the political class to re-appraise him through an objective study.

 

 

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Since I am in the city that is associated with hallowed memory of the principal author of the Indian Constitution, I am prompted to express my serious disquiet over the ominous manner in which the present leadership of the

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