Rahul insulted Ambedkar, Cong Never Gave Due To Sardar Patel: BJP

New Delhi: The BJP said on Tuesday that Rahul Gandhi betrayed his ignorance for the Constitution and contempt for Bhim Rao Ambedkar with his claim that the Constitution is thousands of years old.

Speaking at a programme in Bihar on Monday, Gandhi had said people tell him the Constitution was written in 1947. "But I tell them the Constitution is thousands of years old," the Congress leader had said, maintaining his attack on the BJP-led government at the Centre for undermining constitutional values. Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal said Gandhi insulted Ambedkar, who was chairman of the drafting committee of Constituent Assembly, asserting that it was the champion of Dalit rights who wrote it after independence.

The Congress has always belittled him, he added. BJP national spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi took a jibe saying Gandhi always leaves the country shocked and speechless with his "abundance of knowledge".

He said, "He doesn't even know that the Constitution was not written in 1947 but it was the proceedings of the Constituent Assembly which had then begun. The Constitution was finalised on November 26, 1949, and implemented on January 26, 1950."

Those who criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi's decision to commemorate November 26, 1949 as the "Samvidhan Diwas" should realise that there are many uninformed youngsters in the country who do not have adequate knowledged about the Constitution, and Gandhi is one of them, Trivedi added. The BJP also hit back at Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge for claiming that Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel's ideology was opposed to that of the RSS as he accused the BJP of trying to appropriate his legacy. Meghwal said the Congress never gave his due to Patel and cited his daughter Maniben Patel's book to allege that he was insulted by the party.