'Oppressive' ideology PM belongs to can never respect Dalits, Ambedkar: Rahul

New Delhi: Congress president Rahul Gandhi today hit back at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his recent remark that no government had honoured Dalit icon BR Ambedkar as the present NDA regime had.

Gandhi charged that the “oppressive ideology” the prime minister belongs to “can never respect” Dalits and Ambedkar.

The Congress president also posted on Twitter a collage of images of alleged desecration of Ambedkar's statues in states including Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Tamil Nadu.

“Modi ji, the oppressive ideology you belong to can never respect Dalits and Babasaheb. Some examples of RSS/BJP ideology respecting Babasaheb,” he tweeted.

Ambedkar is fondly called Babasaheb by his followers.

Addressing an event two days ago, the prime minister had sought to reach out to the Dalit community, saying no regime had honoured B R Ambedkar like his government had and suggested against using Ambedkar's name for political gains.