Ambedkar’s grandson questions Yogi government’s ‘Ramji’ move

Dr BR Ambedkar’s grandson Prakash Yashwant Ambedkar has questioned the Yogi Adityanath government’s move to insert ‘Ramji’ in between the name of Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar.

“The Adityanath government has decided to change the name of Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar to Dr Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar to mobilise support for construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya. Ramji is name of Dr BR Ambedkar’s father and by bringing “Ramji” as his middle name, the BJP government obviously wants to link Baba Saheb to the Ram temple. The BJP has consistently failed to bring the temple issue to the centre-stage after the demolition of Babri Masjid in Ayodhya (on December 6, 1992),” said Prakash Ambedkar while speaking to the Hindustan Times on telephone.

Governor Ram Naik had brought the issue of using correct spelling of Dr BR Ambedkar’s name to the notice of Prakash Ambedkar on phone and through a letter sent to him on December 6, 2017. “I had informed you that name of Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar is being used as Bhim Rao Ambedkar in English and Hindi in northern India. Names of universities have also been named in a similar manner…,”said Naik in his letter to Ambedkar.

Naik, along with his letter, had sent a copy of three pages of the Constitution published in Hindi by the Lok Sabha secretariat. One of the three pages signed by members of the constituent assembly shows signatures of Dr BR Ambedkar as Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar.

Though Prakash Ambedkar did not comment on the governor’s letter, he took strong exception to Adityanath government’s move of changing Ambedkar’s name in government records and termed it politically motivated.

On March 28, 2018 the government had issued a GO asking all the additional chief secretaries, principal secretaries, secretaries and heads of department (HoDs) to correct the name of Dr Bhimram Ambedkar as Dr Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar in all the government records. Principal secretary, general administration department, Jitendra Kumar had signed the GO. A copy of the GO was also sent to Registrar Allahabad High Court for necessary action. The government has also asked all the departments to put pictures of Dr BR Ambedkar in all the departments of state government.