Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis on 14 November, 2015 inaugurated B R Ambedkar memorial in London.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Ambedkar House museum in North London on 14 November 2015. The museum on King Henry’s Road in London is where Dr Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar lived while studying at the London School of Economics in 1921-22.
Dr Ambedkar is known as the architect of the Constitution of Bharat and was a renowned politician and an eminent jurist. He sought to eliminate caste-based discrimination and fought for the rights of the Dalits and other socially backward classes. Dr Ambedkar was appointed as the nation's first Law Minister in the Cabinet of Jawaharlal Nehru and he was posthumously awarded the Bharat Ratna, Bharat's highest civilian honor, in 1990.
In September this year, the State Government of Maharastra acquired the Ambedkar House with the view of making it into an international memorial. The property was purchased for Rs 40 crore. It is pertinent to note that it was the initiative of the BJP led Maharashtra State Government and Central Government to construct a grand memorial for Dr Ambedkar at Indu Mill in Mumbai. PM Modi has laid the foundation stone of this mega project on 12 acres land that expected to cost around Rs 425 crore. Another important monument for Ambedkar is at Deekshabhoomi in Nagapur, where he received Buddhism. It was also built at the interest of the state and central BJP leadership, during period of the then NDA Government.
“This is the sacred spot where Dr Ambedkar pursued his quest for knowledge, overcoming all the difficulties and the barriers placed before him,” the Prime Minister wrote in the Visitors’ Book. After visiting the London House of Ambedkar, he said, “Ambedkar’s message of equality and justice continues to resonate.” Chief Minister of Maharastra, Devendra Fadnavis, accompanied the Prime Minister to London to open Ambedkar House to the public and announced that the Government will award a scholarship to two Dalit students every year to study in London School of Economics. Chief Minister Fadnavis also wanted the inauguration to serve as a means of exposing some of the great works of Dr Ambedkar.
Prerna Lau Sian (The writer is a London based Barrister, writer and broadcaster on Nusound Radio 92FM)
