BJP Claims Congress Has Maintained 'Anti-Reservation' Stance from Nehru to Rahul Gandhi

In support of his party, BJP National Spokesperson Guruprakash Paswan on Monday accused Opposition Leader in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi's "anti-reservation" statement was a continuation of his family's ideology.

Attending a press conference held at the BJP state office in Bengaluru, he said that a letter was written by late Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in 1961 to the Chief Ministers of various states, expressing his dislike for any form of reservation.

BJP Spokesperson Paswan, holding out former PM Nehru's letter, said that reservation would lead to inefficiency and the selection of second-grade officials. How could those backlog jobs be filled through reservations when the mindset of Prime Ministers and Chief Ministers was against the reservation?.

A late PM Indira Gandhi, while speaking from the Red Fort, had appealed to eradicate the kind of attitude across the country that treated human beings on the basis of caste and creed. Her son and erstwhile PM Rajiv Gandhi had vociferously opposed the Mandal Commission's recommendations about the reservation in Parliament, even accusing him of pushing the country towards caste-based conflicts.

BJP Spokesman Paswan said Rahul Gandhi, the opposition leader, has made anti-reservation statements outside the country. According to the party philosophy, "Antyodaya" or upliftment of the last person, it believes in the well-being and development of the most downtrodden people in society.

Claiming that in the past 10 years, the BJP has received the support of SCs, STs and OBCs, he said that BJP is organizing press conferences across the country to expose the Congress's double standards and anti-reservation stance.

Paswan, a BJP Spokesperson, asked the total number of the SC, ST, and OBC chief ministers and deputy chief ministers appointed by the Congress and the INDIA block in the states. He also asked Rahul Gandhi for a clarification: is he for or against reservation?.

He criticized Rahul Gandhi for the "anti-reservation" statements made abroad. He said that this opposition to reservation has deep family roots. The BJP Spokesperson added that this anti-reservation mentality is not new.

Arguing that the Congress overlooks SC, ST and OBC communities in appointments of Chief Ministers, Deputy Chief Ministers and opposition leaders, he said: "For him, only and only Brahmins are worthy enough to sit in the chair." He further added that this was also true with the Chief Ministers and that the BJP had even accommodated a representative from the small Siddi community in the Legislative Council.

It is for the first time in Karnataka that a member of the SC community has been appointed as the Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Council. After Ambedkar, it is Dalit leader Arjun Ram Meghwal who has been appointed as Union Law Minister thanks to BJP, said BJP spokesperson Paswan.

He also claimed that for the first time, an SC community member has been appointed as the Chief Information Officer. The BJP has also provided opportunities to the SC community in Railway board. Despite its dominance since 1952, by which the President can nominate members of the SC community to Rajya Sabha, till 2020 this opportunity was not availed. In the year 2020, the BJP nominated Tamil Nadu's Ilaiyaraaja from the same community, he asserted.

The BJP leader accused the Congress of treating Dalits and the SC/ST communities merely as a vote bank. While election campaigns are currently underway in Haryana, senior SC leader and former Union Minister Kumari Selja has gone missing from the scene. The Congress has not given her and other Dalit leaders a place during the release of the party's election manifesto, he charged.

The attendance at the press conference comprised BJP SC Morcha State President and MLA Cement Manjunath, SC Morcha State General Secretaries Umesh Karajol and Mahendra Koutal, senior leaders Rudrayya and Anil Kumar.