PANAJI
A seemingly communally tinged statement by Satish Dhond, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) general secretary (Organization), that Dr B R Ambedkar had refused to convert to Islam or Christianity and suggesting “there would be another Pakistan in this country” if he did and his 5 lakh supporters followed suit, has evoked strong reactions from netizens in the social media space.
Dhond, commonly referred to as the ‘chanakya’ of the BJP in Goa, had made the statement on Friday at a party event which was attended by Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, all his cabinet colleagues, all MLAs and top party leaders, where ‘karyakartas’ were feted for making the Goa assembly election victory possible.
Several people took to micro-blogging site Twitter and other social media platforms to call out the communal overtones of Dhond’s comments.
“Dear Satish Dhond, did you know that the end part of your statement can get you charged under these sections of the Indian Penal Code: IPC section 153A, 295A, 502(2),” wrote one citizen from his Twitter handle @GoanBoy001, urging police authorities to look into it.
“Half knowledge is very dangerous so pls do a fact check before making any statements,” read another post on Twitter by an user of the handle @leojinline.
“Baba saheb had willingly adopted Buddhism! I don’t understand why some people are trying to hide this fact?” commented yet another user @udaybarad.
At the event on Friday Dhond urged BJP ‘karyakartas’ to organise programmes in their respective constituencies to mark the birth anniversary of Dr Ambedkar on April 14 said: “He (Ambedkar) suffered a lot as a Dalit but despite that he did not become a Christian, he did not become a Muslim.”
He went on to add that the Nizam of Hyderabad offered him a huge sum of money and asked him to become a Muslim and Christians too tried hard to convert him but Ambedkar became a Buddhist because Buddhism was founded in this country.
Dhond also said that despite so many years of Congress rule, the Bharat Ratna was conferred on him only by the VP Singh government with the late BJP leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee having a role in it.
A staunch functionary of the BJP’s ideological parent Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, Dhond has a high stature in the hierarchy and has been active in the Goa BJP for nearly two decades. During the dominance of former CM Manohar Parrikar, he was the latter’s trusted lieutenant.
