New Delhi. Azim Peer Khadri, a Congress leader in Karnataka, has made a very controversial claim about Baba Saheb Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar. The Congress leader says that Baba Saheb wanted to convert to Islam, adding that if Baba Saheb had not converted to Buddhism, he would have definitely joined Islam. Congress leader Khadri also claimed that if Baba Saheb had accepted Islam, the name of senior Congress leader Hanumanth Gowda would have been Hasan and the name of party leader Manjunath would have been Mehboob. On the other hand, BJP has hit back on this issue and said that insulting Ambedkar ji is the identity of Congress.
‘Ambedkar almost became Muslim, but he eventually became a Buddhist’: Congress Leader Syed Azeempur’s controversial statement on BR Ambedkar.
Complete Congress has accepted Islam…: @AcharyaPramodk speaks to @sagarikamitra26@dpkBopanna share more details. pic.twitter.com/zOhBdrbLdh
— TIMES NOW (@TimesNow) November 12, 2024
BJP spokesperson Shahzad Poonawala said that insulting Ambedkar ji by defeating him in the elections while he was still alive, then delaying giving him Bharat Ratna and making changes in the Preamble of the Constitution, distorting Ambedkar ji’s thoughts and now this regarding his religious conversion. Raising such questions exposes the real character of Congress.
What do experts say?
According to a BBC report regarding Baba Saheb Bhimrao Ambedkar’s religious conversion, he had deeply studied many religions before converting, one of which was Islam. According to Badri Narayan, a professor at Prayagraj-based Govind Ballabh Pant Institute of Social Sciences and an expert in modern history, Baba Saheb was against many evils of Islam. At the same time, Professor Shamsul Islam of Delhi University says that Baba Saheb never wanted to adopt Islam because he believed that casteism is as prevalent in Islam as in Hinduism. Not only this, Ambedkar was also very concerned about the status of women in Islam. After independence, religious conversion of Dalits was taking place in Pakistan but Ambedkar was advising them not to convert to Islam. Ambedkar adopted Buddhism only to provide equal rights to Dalits in the society.
