Rahul Gandhi, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, was on Thursday seen wearing a blue T-shirt, something which caught everyone's attention amid the huge political slugfest revolving around BR Ambedkar. Rahul Gandhi has been wearing a white T-shirt for quite some time. Notably, the entire Opposition was also seen wearing blue on Thursday. Several MPs of the INDIA bloc staged a protest in Parliament premises wearing blue demanding Amit Shah's apology for his remarks on BR Ambedkar which they claimed were an insult to the father of the Constitution.
Why blue?
Amid the discussion on BR Ambedkar, who is also known as the voice of the Dalit, SC/STs, blue is said to be the colour representing the said communities. Blue flags stand out as the most visible marker of the Dalit protests in recent years. Be it at the massive Dalit protests that followed the Khairlanji massacre of 2006, or those after the suicide of Dalit scholar Rohith Vemula in Hyderabad in 2016 or the Una floggings the same year; or even after the bicentenary celebration of the BhimaKoregaon war in a remote village in Maharashtra early this year. According to political analysts, the theory behind the blue being associated with the community is that the colour is of sky — a representation of non-discrimination, that under the sky everyone is believed to be equal.
Political parties which mainly represent the backward such as the Bahujan Samajwadi Party (BSP), Republican Party of India (RPI), Aazad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram) also have blue colour in their party symbol.
Rahul Gandhi and the Opposition wearing blue can be seen as a move to extend support to the backward classes amidst the controversy of Home Minister Amit Shah insulting BR Ambedkar with his remarks in Parliament.
Why white?
Rahul Gandhi was seen wearing a white T-shirt during his Bharat Jodho Nyay Yatra. And since then he has been wearing the same colour. On his birthday when Rahul Gandhi was asked about this, he said, "I am often asked why I always wear a 'white T-shirt' - this T-shirt symbolises transparency, solidity and simplicity for me."
What's the controversy
The Congress had shared a clip of Shah's speech to accuse him of insulting Ambedkar, a respected figure and an icon especially among Dalits. "Abhi ek fashion ho gaya hai - Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar. Itna naam agar bhagwan ka lete to saat janmon tak swarg mil jata (It has become a fashion to say Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar'. If they had taken God's name so many times, they would have got a place in heaven in all seven lives)," Amit Shah had said. Congress attacked the Home Minister and said his remarks imply that one should revere God and not B R Ambedkar because revering the father of the Constitution means accepting the freedom of speech.
In counterattack, Shah said the Congress showed a small portion of his speech with an aim to spread confusion. The BJP launched a counter-campaign, sharing a bigger portion of Shah's address to highlight that it was aimed at exposing the Congress' repeated insults to Ambedkar and neglect of his legacy compared to the ruling party's initiatives to preserve and promote his contributions and ideas.
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