Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Friday hit back at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his recent remark that no government had honoured dalit icon Dr B.R. Ambedkar as the present NDA regime had.

Mr Gandhi charged that the "oppressive ideology" the Prime Minister belongs to "can never respect" dalits and Dr 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. Mr. Gandhi tweeted "Modi ji, the oppressive ideology you belong to can never respect Dalits and Babasaheb. Some examples of RSS/BJP ideology respecting Babasaheb."

A war for the legacy of Dr Ambedkar is going on between the BJP and the Congress.

In the last couple of days some BJP MPs have written to the Prime Minister that dalits are being ignored by BJP government.

The BJP-led central government has been accused by the opposition of not properly representing the case related Prevention of Atrocities against SC/ST Act in the Supreme Court. On the defensive, the government has filed a review petition in the apex court.

While speaking to party leaders Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that rivals are unable to reconcile to the fact that the BJP has become a party of the poor and has highest numbers of MPs and MLAs from scheduled castes and tribes. 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 Dr Ambedkar's name for political gains.

The Congress has been attacking the government for being anti-dalit. The flogging of dalits in Una Gujarat, the suicide of dalit scholar Rohith Vemula in Hyderabad central university are some examples that are raised by the Congress.