SP MP Ramji Lal Suman threatens nationwide stir if Ambedkar statue not installed in Gwalior HC
Samajwadi Party Rajya Sabha MP Ramji Lal Suman on Monday threatened to launch a nationwide stir if a statue of Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar, the architect of the Indian Constitution, is not installed at the premises of the Gwalior Bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court.
He alleged that authorities are preventing him from travelling to Gwalior, where he intended to raise his voice over the issue.
Addressing a press conference in Agra, Suman claimed he and his supporters were stopped from proceeding to Gwalior despite their peaceful intentions.
"We are being prevented from travelling not just to Gwalior but also to other districts of Uttar Pradesh. This is a direct attack on our democratic rights," he said.
Suman expressed deep concern over what he described as "deliberate efforts to create controversy and disharmony in society".
He alleged that even though the Chief Justice of the Madhya Pradesh High Court had approved the installation of the Ambedkar statue, the directive was not being followed.
"This is not just a violation of a court order, it is an insult to the legacy of Babasaheb Ambedkar,' he said.
Warning of widespread protests, Suman said: "If the statue of Babasaheb is not installed at the premises of the Gwalior Bench, a nationwide movement will be launched."
He also made a controversial comparison during his press conference, pointing out that a statue of Manu Maharaj -- believed by many to be the author of Manusmriti -- is installed outside the Rajasthan High Court in Jaipur, while Ambedkar's statue is being resisted in Gwalior.
"Manu Maharaj was against the dignity of women and Dalits. And yet his statue stands tall, while Babasaheb, who gave us the Constitution, is being disrespected," he said.
This isn't the first time Suman has stirred controversy. Earlier, he drew sharp criticism after calling 16th-century Rajput ruler Rana Sanga a "traitor" during a speech in the Rajya Sabha, which sparked outrage from political opponents.
Suman said the current developments reflect the Madhya Pradesh government's worrying attitude towards Dalit representation and historical justice. "The message is clear -- certain forces are not comfortable with Ambedkar's legacy," he said.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Print
an hour ago
- The Print
Vijay Rupani, Modi's go-to man & the CM who stood tall among the tallest of Gujarat leaders
This reporter asked him about this multiple times and every time he would smile and say he is with the party. Multi-term MP Keshubhai Patel, among the tallest BJP leaders then, and Gujarat's former textiles minister Kashiram Rana would often meet Advani at his residence to complain about Modi and seek his removal. Rupani, however, always maintained a distance from the 'anti-Modi' camp. New Delhi: It was the era of L.K. Advani and Rajnath Singh in the BJP, and Narendra Modi was a rising star. Vijay Rupani, a Rajya Sabha MP in 2006, maintained a low profile. The man and his affable smile have disappeared forever now. The former Gujarat chief minister was on board the Air India plane that crashed in Ahmedabad Thursday afternoon. He was 68. The crash brought to a cruel end an almost three-decade political career whose high point came in 2016 when he was made the chief minister of the state. Before that he served as Rajya Sabha member between 2006 and 2012. After Rupani completed his term in Rajya Sabha in 2012, Modi, then the Gujarat chief minister, made him chairman of the Gujarat Municipal Finance Board. Also Read: Ahmedabad pilots tried to land in empty area, say aviation experts. See Google Earth images The 2014 challenge & Rupani's rise Rupani worked for the party in the challenging Saurashtra region in the 2014 polls and the party performed well. A few months later, he worked intensively to wrest back the Junagadh local body from the Congress, snatching from the party the only local body it held in the state. Rupani's standing rose within the party and Modi, now the prime minister, recognised his efforts. He fielded him from the Rajkot West bypoll in October 2014 after sitting MLA Vajubhai Vala was made the governor of Karnataka. Rupani won and was made the water supply minister in the Anandiben Patel cabinet. The Rajkot West seat's importance can be gauged from the fact that Modi contested his first assembly polls in the state from this constituency. Rupani was Modi's campaign in-charge in the February 2002 poll. In 2016, Rupani, who had by now served four terms as the general secretary of the Gujarat BJP, was made the state party chief. These were challenging times for the party. The assembly elections were just about a year away and the BJP was desperate to prove it can maintain its hold over the state despite Modi, its most popular leader in Gujarat for years, now moving to national politics. The 2017 elections were about prestige for the BJP. The Patidar quota agitation led by a young Hardik Patel was threatening to dent the party's popularity and its voter base. Then BJP chief minister Anandiben Patel, who was seen taking tough measures against the agitators, was removed from office. And who the BJP and Modi turned to? Vijaybhai Ramniklalbhai Rupani. He was not the obvious choice though. Nitin Patel, who was the deputy chief minister then, was the front-running claimant, his surname bolstering his chances. As the talks of replacing the chief minister gained momentum, Patel had already started accepting congratulatory messages. Rupani never thought he had any chance of becoming the chief minister. When this reporter asked him about this, he said, 'I am happy'. Again, with a smile. But the BJP and Modi surprised one and all when they announced Rupani, from the neutral Jain-Bania community, as Anandiben's successor. He was in Rajkot to celebrate his birthday when his name was announced as the chief minister. Rupani steered the BJP to victory in the December 2017 assembly polls, overcoming the headwind caused by the Patidar agitation and a resurgent Congress. In the 182-seat assembly, the BJP won 99 seats. It was the lowest BJP tally in the state since it came to power, but enough for a majority. Rupani was picked as the chief minister again. Also Read: What Air India's fleet looks like in 2025 'Everybody's friend' Rupani's next big political challenge in the state came in 2019. But he delivered once again, helping the BJP win all the 26 Lok Sabha seats in the state. The credit was given to Modi, and Rupani made no complaints. 'Whatever duty was assigned to him by the party, he tried to fulfill them without making a noise about it,' multi-term MP Haren Pathak, an Advani loyalist who was also a minister of state during the Vajpayee government, told ThePrint Thursday. 'He was a man of organisation. He never had any issue with any leader. He was everybody's friend. When Narendrabhai sent him to Rajya Sabha in 2006, he never said he achieved anything, like others do, to attract the limelight.' During his second term, Rupani helped the BJP retain all eight municipal corporations and win civic body polls in the state. His tenure as the chief minister was without any major controversy even though he faced criticism for his handling of the Covid-19 pandemic. His administration faced serious questions about alleged mismanagement of oxygen supply which led to deaths in hospitals. His image was dented. What also harmed him politically was belief in some quarters that he maintained a low-profile as chief minister and the government was run effectively by civil servants. The BJP replaced him as chief minister before the 2022 assembly polls, with Bhupendra Patel taking over. Rupani accepted the party's decision, without any complaint. He was later made the party's Punjab in-charge, and it would remain his last organisational assignment. Rajendra Trivedi, who worked in the first Rupani cabinet as sports and arts minister, recalled an incident. 'Unlike other chief ministers, he was not intimidating. No worker ever felt under pressure thinking 'CM saheb naraz ho jayenge (the chief minister will get angry). They spoke to him without fear,' Trivedi told ThePrint Thursday. 'Once I met the chief minister with an idea to launch a scheme for elderly pilgrims. He immediately said start the scheme. I made the plan for the Shravan Tirth subsidy scheme, which was started during his time,' he added. 'I proposed 50 percent state govt contribution with the rest 50 percent coming from the elderly people themselves. But, the chief minister intervened saying 'they are elderly people, raise the state government's contribution to 60 percent and keep theirs at 40. It was changed to 70:30 later. It means, he kept track on small details,' Trivedi further said. Also Read: 'Was getting ready to board from Ahmedabad airport. Then my friend called me to the terrace' The RSS background The BJP fought the 2022 assembly elections under state president C.R. Paatil, and broke the record of winning the maximum number of seats, by bagging 156. But Rupani sat alone at his residence, away from the limelight. Gujarat BJP vice-president Janakbhai Patel told ThePrint Thursday, 'He never showed he was the CM. His predecessor Anandiben Patel's style of working was different. Before her, you have to understand the problem quickly. She was assertive before officials.' 'With Rupani, he would give a patient hearing and offer a solution. Maybe, because he was not too assertive,' he said. Born in Rangoon (now Yangon, Myanmar) in August 1956, Rupani joined a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) Shakha as a schoolboy, before graduating to the BJP via the Sangh's students wing—the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP). His father was a ball-bearing trader in Rajkot. Rupani became active in the RSS while studying in an arts college. He honed his political skills during the 1974 Gujarat Navnirman agitation, a sociopolitical movement led by students and the middle-class against economic hardships and corruption in public life. The agitation soon spread to other states, particularly in Bihar, where socialist legend Jayaprakash Narayan extended support and gave a call for his 'Total Revolution'. The movement eventually led to the fall of the Indira Gandhi government and installation of the first non-Congress dispensation at the Centre under Morarji Desai. Rupani, who was then with the ABVP, was jailed for nearly a year during the Emergency. Rupani made his electoral debut in the Rajkot municipal corporation elections in 1987. He became a councilor and served as the chairman of the RMC standing committee before becoming the mayor of Rajkot in 1996. He was later made the in-charge of the Gujarat government's committee on implementing its 20-point development programme. Later, he was made the general secretary of the BJP before being sent to Rajya Sabha in 2006. (Edited by Ajeet Tiwari) Also Read: India's first black box lab for air crash investigations was launched in April 2025
The Hindu
an hour ago
- The Hindu
Trump's tariffs and a U.S.-India trade agreement
At the end of the day, it was not the big fight between nations, but a case brought by five small U.S. businesses that presented the biggest challenge yet, to U.S. President Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs. Tariffs are the substance of laws and regulations formulated after highly rigorous trade negotiations. The binding of tariffs through schedules of commitments in trade agreements, offers much needed certainty and predictability to businesses trading across borders. Which is why Mr. Trump's sweeping tariffs — 10% to 135%, over 100 countries worldwide — were a stunning repudiation of the rules of trade. That it also extended to the barren Arctic marine reserves of Heard and McDonald Islands, uninhabited by humans, just highlighted the irony of a bizarre executive order. This sweeping executive action also upended the fundamental principle of separation of powers between the three branches of government — the legislature, the executive and the judiciary — which lie at the heart of any democratic constitutional framework. That such an exercise of executive authority could happen without any checks and balances in the U.S., widely regarded as among the modern world's oldest democracies with a strong constitutional framework, was another point of reckoning. Five small and mid-sized U.S. businesses, dealing with wines, plastics, bicycles, musical circuits, and fishing equipment, took on the U.S. administration, and challenged the presidential executive order at the U.S. Court of International Trade (U.S. CIT), stating that the tariffs were unlawfully harming their operations and economic viability. A closer look at 'trade deficits' The Trump administration argued that the tariffs were necessary to address the 'national emergency' created by U.S.' trade deficits with all countries worldwide. Trade deficit occurs when imports exceed exports. A 'deficit' is not necessarily bad for a country's economic health. It only demonstrates the availability of consumer wealth to purchase imported goods. In any event, the U.S. administration, bizarrely, did not account for U.S. export of services in its calculation. For example, the U.S. has cited the $44.4 billion trade deficit with India. This, however, does not consider trade in services (which includes digital services, financial services, education) and arms trade, after considering which, the Global Trade Research Initiative has estimated that the U.S. actually runs a $35 billion-$40 billion overall surplus with India. The U.S. CIT, in its judgment dated May 28, 2025, ruled that the worldwide and retaliatory tariffs exceeded any authority under law. The court cautioned against the blatant and overarching use of 'national emergency' powers by the President. It noted that the mere incantation of 'national emergency' cannot sound the 'death-knell of the Constitution', and, additionally, cannot enable the President to rewrite tariff commitments in international agreements. The strong and powerful ruling, so far, has had little practical impact, having been stayed the very next day by a U.S. appeals court. The tariffs and the threat of tariffs, therefore, continue, and so does the pressure to conclude a trade deal with the U.S. The Trump administration had in fact, argued before the U.S. CIT that the enhanced tariffs provided it leverage in trade negotiations — an argument which the CIT ruled does not in any manner mitigate its legal infirmity. More egregious U.S. executive actions are promised as part of the Trump One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB) — a proposed omnibus law which would reportedly also grant the executive immunity from enforcement of judicial orders. Where India stands Where does all this really leave India? The governments of both countries have been indicating an early conclusion of a trade agreement, before the U.S. threat of the July 8 deadline. Despite ongoing negotiations, the U.S. has enhanced its existing punitive tariffs of 25% on steel and 10% on aluminium imports (in force since Mr. Trump's first term), to 50% on both. Pursuant to complaints initiated at the World Trade Organization by Switzerland, Norway, China and Türkiye, WTO panels had ruled (in 2022) that the tariffs imposed during Mr. Trump's first term, do not meet the proposed justification of national security. India too had initiated a WTO dispute, but withdrew this on the basis of a 'mutually agreed solution' with the U.S. in 2023. That mutual solution clearly did not prevent Trump administration extending the new 50% tariffs on steel and aluminium to India as well. India's contemplated retaliation at the WTO has been resisted by the U.S. A purported target of the Trump administration's ire is China's rise. The argument that the U.S.-China trade impasse presents a possible strategic advantage for India, however, is made uncertain by two recent developments: the U.S. and China's truce, pausing their retaliatory tariffs against each other and working towards a negotiated solution; and, more importantly, the U.S. administration's threats to impose tariffs on Apple's products, should it manufacture in India. Mr. Trump's transactional approach also indicates that there is no guarantee that the U.S. will intervene in India's favour should there be a military standoff with China. The path ahead In any trade agreement with the U.S., therefore, a careful balancing of India's interests is paramount. Any deal would need to ensure the removal of all additional tariffs on India's exports, allay concerns about retaliatory tariffs on U.S. investments, such as that from Apple in India, and ensure that the proposed OBBB Act's 3.5% tax on remittances sent from the U.S. does not apply to remittances by Indian citizens. India should also seek assurance that there would be no retaliation against India's digital services taxes. A long-standing concern for India is also the fears and backlash against H-1B visas, used widely by tech companies for their Indian employees. It is critical for a trade deal to address the issue of visas required for services trade. It is equally important for both sides to iron out the delivery of cross-border trade in services, which includes aspects relating to data flows and their regulation. Above all, any trade agreement that India negotiates with the U.S. needs to be fully aligned with India's commitments under the WTO. The U.S. disregard for multilateral institutions, notwithstanding, WTO's multilateral set of rules is the only real safeguard in an uncertain world, and India needs to do much more to preserve its foundations, as committed during its G-20 presidency. Finally, India should have the ability to stay out of any sub-optimal deal. Mr. Trump's tariffs, while painful, are likely to have a short lifespan with the biggest challenge emerging from within the U.S. itself. R.V. Anuradha is a Partner at Clarus Law Associates, New Delhi. The views expressed are personal
The Print
5 hours ago
- The Print
Tripura CM condemns vandalisation of Tagore's ancestral home in Bangladesh
'The ancestral home of Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore at Shahjadpur in Bangladesh was vandalised by miscreants. The act was highly condemnable and shameful incident to the entire nation. Tagore is the creator of the national anthem of India and Bangladesh,' he wrote on Facebook. A mob attacked and vandalised the ancestral home of Tagore in Bangladesh's Sirajganj district on Tuesday. Agartala, Jun 12 (PTI) Tripura Chief Minister Manik Saha on Thursday condemned the attack and vandalisation of Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore's ancestral home in Bangladesh and termed it as an 'attack on our culture and heritage'. Saha said, 'The attack on Tagore's ancestral home is an attack on our culture and heritage. I demand exemplary punishment for those who are involved in the shocking incident. The interim government of Bangladesh needs to act strongly.' BJP Tripura state president and Rajya Sabha MP Rajib Bhattacharjee also condemned the vandalisation of Tagore's home in Bangladesh and called it a blow to literature, culture and humanism. 'I strongly condemned what had happened at Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore's ancestral home in Bangladesh during the regime of the interim government. I urge the government to take action against the people involved in the shocking incident,' he told reporters. India on Thursday strongly condemned the vandalisation of the ancestral home of Rabindranath Tagore in Bangladesh by a mob and termed the violent attack a 'disgrace' to the memory and inclusive philosophy espoused by the poet. Kachharibari is the ancestral home and revenue office of the Tagore family located in Sirajganj district. Tagore created many of his literary works while living in this mansion. 'We strongly condemn the despicable act, attack and vandalisation of the ancestral home of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore by a mob,' the MEA spokesperson said. After the vandalisation, authorities had constituted a three-member committee to investigate the incident, according to media reports in Bangladesh on Wednesday. PTI PS RG This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.
