Mangalore pays tribute to Ambedkar on his 121st birthday

Mangalore, April 14: The Dakshina Kannada district administration celebrated the 121st birth anniversary of Dr B R Ambedkar, the architect of the Indian Constitution, at Town Hall, here on Saturday.

The function was attended by MLA Yogish Bhat, MP Nalin Kumar Kateel, chairman of Coastal Development Authority -B Nagaraj Shetty, Dhanalaxmi Janardhan- Vice president Zilla Panchayath, Vijayalakshmi Shetty- Secretary D K Zilla Panchayath, Zilla Panchayath CEO- K N Vijay Prakash, Deputy Mayor Amitha Kala, President of Karnataka Minority wing – N B Abubakar, Deputy Commissioner Dr Chanappa Gowda, Commissioner of Police, Seemanth Kumar Singh, Superintendent of Police Abhishek Goyal and Prof Abhay Kumar – Department of Kannada, Mangalore University.

MP Nalin Kumar Kateel inaugurated the function by lighting the lamp. The dignitaries then paid floral tributes to the portrait of Dr B R Ambedkar.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Kateel said that Ambedkar changed the thoughts of the citizens and brought about an awareness of national pride amongst the Indians. “He (Ambedkar) struggled through pain, but never showed it. He saw to it that all sections of the society secured justice and spread the idea of equality amongst people,” Mr. Kateel said.

“Ambedkar was a true visionary and raised his voice against exploitation in society. He not only fought for freedom but also gave a direction in which the society needs to function. We must follow his ideals,” he said.

Prof. Abhay Kumar, in his presidential address, compared the contribution of Ambedkar with Mahatma Gandhi. “Gandhi was a leader while Ambedkar was a visionary of society,” he said. “While Gandhi put forth ideas, Ambedkar gave it a structure. Ambedkar should not be idealised as a Dalit leader just because he came from an 'untouchable' caste. He is a national leader and did not form constitution only for Dalits, he said. Paying tribute to Devraj Urs, he said: “We had another leader (Devraj Urs) who took care of backward classes, but nobody remembers him. Ambedkar gave us constitutional freedom and thus made our democracy functional,” he observed.

Mangalore MLA U T Khader hailed Ambedkar as someone who gave the nation its Holy Book. “Hindus, Christians and Muslims have their holy books. But for a country there is only one constitution which governs the functioning of our democracy,” he said.

B Nagaraj Shetty pointed out that rural India needs to bear the fruits of good governance and thus the nation has to be run according to the ideals of the constitution. He compared that if Ambedkar has struggled so much the least we could do was to follow his vision of a corruption-free society.

The programme was organised jointly by the district administration, D K Zilla Panchayath , Mangalore City Corporation and Social Welfare Department. A large number of government officials, police officers and political leaders were present.