The Congress on Wednesday demanded the resignation of Union Home Minister Amit Shah, alleging that the Bharatiya Janata Party leader had insulted BR Ambedkar.

On Tuesday, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh shared a 12-second video of Shah’s comment.

“It has become a fashion to say Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar,” the Union home minister was heard saying in the clip. “If they had taken God’s name so many times, they would have got a place in heaven.”

Shah made the remark on Tuesday during his speech on the Constitution in the Upper House of Parliament.

Alleging that Shah had said “something disgusting”, Ramesh demanded that the Union home minister apologise to the country.

“This shows that the BJP and RSS [Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh] leaders have a lot of hatred for Baba Saheb Ambedkar,” Ramesh had said on social media. “The hatred is such that they are even irritated by his name.”

On Wednesday morning, several MPs of the Opposition INDIA bloc protested inside Parliament premises demanding Shah’s apology, reported PTI.

“We demand Home Minister Amit Shah’s resignation,” Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge told reporters. “India will not tolerate Dr Ambedkar’s insult.”

The Opposition leaders also shouted slogans inside Parliament, leading to proceedings in both Houses being adjourned for the day.

Speaking at a press conference later in the day, Shah said the Congress had distorted his remarks in Rajya Sabha to “further their agenda”.

“I urge the media to tell their audience the complete truth about my statements,” said the home minister. “The Bharatiya Janata Party can never disrespect Ambedkar ji and in fact, has always strived to work as per his ideals.”

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a series of social media posts that the Congress was “indulging in theatrics” as Shah had “exposed the party’s dark history of insulting Dr Ambedkar and ignoring the Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes communities”.

“If the Congress and its rotten ecosystem think their malicious lies can hide their misdeeds of several years, especially their insult towards Dr Ambedkar, they are gravely mistaken,” said the prime minister.

Modi alleged that the “worst massacres against Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes communities have happened under” the Congress governments and claimed that over the past 10 years, his government had “worked tirelessly to fulfil the vision of Ambedkar”.

“Take any sector – be it removing 25 crore people from poverty, strengthening the SC/ST Act, our government’s flagship programmes like Swachh Bharat, PM Awas Yojana, Jal Jeevan Mission, Ujjwala Yojana and more, each of them has touched the lives of the poor and marginalised,” claimed Modi.