Mumbai, Nov 7 : Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju on Thursday said that the people will not forgive the Congress party for repeatedly insulting the Constitution.

At a press conference here, the Union Minister took a dig at the Congress MP and Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, saying that B.R. Ambedkar's soul may have suffered as the Gandhi scion was seen at the Samvidhan Sammelan at Nagpur on Wednesday "with a blank notepad with a red cover displaying it as the copy of the Constitution."

"This is highly condemnable," Rijiju added.

The Union Minister, further attacking the grand old party, said: "By imposing the Emergency, the Congress had strangled democracy. The Congress should first answer about their repeated attacks on the Constitution only then they should hold the Constitution in hand and take the name Dr Ambedkar. Congress has no right to take Dr Ambedkar's name. Former PM Jawaharlal Nehru was the first to oppose the reservation, as per the records of Parliament. It should also be noted that Congress denied Bharat Ratna to Dr Ambedkar but awarded it to Jawaharlal Nehru."

"Babasaheb Ambedkar was excluded from the list by Jawaharlal Nehru to prevent him from being included in the first Union Cabinet. When Mahatma Gandhi and some others brought to his attention that the first government was not formed through elections, he was given the post of the country's first Law Minister. Since then, Nehru has always insulted Dr Ambedkar. Eventually, Dr Ambedkar had to resign. After that, wherever Babasaheb Ambedkar went to contest elections, the Congress tried hard to defeat him," Rijiju said.

He also questioned why the Congress did not celebrate Constitution Day till 2015.

The Union Minister claimed that the Congress had done the biggest damage to the Muslim community by using it as a vote bank.

"Muslims remained poor forever and Congress benefited. Against that background, the BJP is taking all the elements of society along with them and is developing them," Kiren Rijiju said.

He also expressed confidence that the falsehood of the Congress has now been exposed, and the minorities will support MahaYuti in Maharashtra.

"The contribution of Maharashtra and the financial capital Mumbai is important to strengthen the economy of the country at the global level. During the MahaYuti government, development work was done at a faster pace, and I am pretty sure that the voters will acknowledge this work," Kiren Rijiju said.

Further, the Union Minister said that Article 370 has been abrogated, and it will not be reinstated again in Jammu and Kashmir, adding that India will remain united.

/IANS