Maharashtra government to acquire Ambedkar's London home

Bringing cheer on the faces of millions of Dalits, the Maharashtra government on Saturday announced that it would acquire the 2,050-square foot London house of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar.

Maharashtra education minister Vinod Tawde, who is in London to attend the World Education Conference, announced the decision after consulting with Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who is in Davos to attend the World Economic Forum meet. It was decided to buy the house for Rs 35 crore.

"The residence will be open to public from April 14, Ambedkar birth anniversary. One still meets people who tell you which libraries went to during his stay in London," a statement quoting Tawde said.

Ambedkar had lived at the three-story house for from 1921 to 1922. The Maharashtra government's decision comes after the owner of the house decided to put it up for sale through a realtor.

Mumbai BJP president Ashish Shelar had, earlier this month, written to Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley seeking Prime Minister Narendra Modi's intervention in acquiring the house. "This is an emotional issue for Ambedkar's followers and the people of Maharashtra," Shelar had said.

Former chief minister Prithviraj Chavan had also made a request to the Union government to buy the property. "Towards the end of my term, we had asked the Centre to buy the mansion. As it is an international transaction, it could be facilitated only by the Central government. I do not know what happened later," he said.

Meanwhile, Dalit leaders welcomed the state government's decision. "It is good that the state government took the decision and I thank the chief minister for it," Bharip Bahujan Mahasangh leader and Ambedkar's grandson Prakash Ambedkar said.