Ambedkar wanted to be a Sikh: Chandumajra

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, November 27

Akali MP from Anandpur Sahib Prem Singh Chandumajra today claimed that chief architect of the Constitution Dr BR Ambedkar wanted to be a Sikh. He could not do so as a national leader had threatened to go on indefinite fast if Ambedkar took that step, he said.

Speaking in the Lok Sabha on a debate on “Commitment to Constitution”, Chandumajra lashed out at Congress leaders for preaching “tolerance” having been a “part and parcel of the anti-Sikh riots of 1984 and having bombed Harmandir Sahib—the holiest Sikh shrine.”

Chandumajra also recalled how Sikh representatives in the Constituent Assembly—Sardar Hukum Singh and Parvinder Singh Mann refused to sign the Constitution in protest against its failure to secure Sikh rights and cultural identity.

“Sadly, Sikh SCs were left out of the comprehensive SC list at that time and we had to struggle to get that right. Article 25 of the Constitution subsumed us as Hindus and tinkered with our identity. All states were formed on the basis of language, but we had to struggle for Punjab. Our capital Chandigarh, taken temporarily, has never been returned to us,” he said.