The Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday slammed the government on the issue of the cartoon of Dalit icon B R Ambedkar in school text books and accused the Congress of "insulting" Gujjar, Jat, Sikh and Jain communities.
"For the last two days, this government has been committing mistakes and apologising. It commits a mistake in the morning and apologises in the evening. Yesterday, the Leader of the House in Lok Sabha Pranab Mukherjee apologised and today Union Minister Kapil Sibal said sorry," said BJP spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain.
He said the BJP was "deeply hurt" that Ambedkar has been "insulted" in NCERT books.
"We strongly condemn the manner in which Ambedkar has been insulted. This is not a small offence. There are some offences which can never be forgiven. These textbooks have been taught for the last five years," Hussain said.
He said such insults by the Congress were not new.
"The Congress has also insulted communities like the Gujjars, Jats, Sikhs and Jains in the textbooks. Several such objectionable material was removed by the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government," Hussain claimed.
The BJP expressed hope that such offences would not be repeated by this government.
Taking a dig at Sibal, Hussain said there have been several instances in the past when the minister had embarrassed the Manmohan Singh government.
"Sibal should guard against becoming a national burden while trying to become a national asset," he said.
The party also raked up the Aircel-Maxis issue and sought to know how Home Minister P Chidambaram read out a letter of his son in the House when members can only make their own statements.
"Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj has asked in the House under what rule Chidambaram read out his son's letter. Here, MPs are not getting an opportunity to speak in the House while Chidambaram is reading out his son's letter," Hussain said.
He insisted that this was an "unprecedented" event in the history of Parliament.
"This is the first time in the last 60 years that an MP has read out the letter of his son. Is his son such a great person that he is being quoted in the Lok Sabha," Hussain said, adding that the letter was also tabled in the House.
He sought to know whether the letter would be archived in Parliament.
Asked if the Aircel-Maxis issue has been put on the back-burner with the Opposition focussing on the cartoon controversy, Hussain said, "Chidambaram is not going to escape from this. The issue is not closed. We will raise it again when the House meets."
