‘PM against quota, wants to take it away’: Rahul sharpens attack

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi with Telangana chief minister Revanth Reddy in Adilabad on Sunday.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is against reservation and wants to take away quotas from the people.

Addressing an election rally at Nirmal under Adilabad Lok Sabha constituency, the former Congress president also said that the ongoing parliamentary elections is a contest between two ideologies in which the Congress is trying to protect the Constitution while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh are trying to end it and people’s rights.

Adilabad, a seat reserved for the Scheduled Tribe (ST), is scheduled to go to the polls during the fourth phase on May 13.

“Narendra Modi ji is against reservation. He wants to take away reservations from you. The biggest issue before the country is increasing reservation from 50%,” Gandhi said.

BJP leaders also want reservations to end, he claimed. The Congress has, in its manifesto, promised that if the party forms the government at the Centre, it will breach the 50% limit on quotas for STs, Scheduled Castes and Other Backward Classes, and increase the quotas beyond 50%, he added.

The Congress has often alleged that the BJP and the RSS are against reservations.

While Modi on May 1 asserted that as long as he and the BJP are around, reservation in jobs and education granted to SCs/STs/OBCs, and economically weaker sections as per the Constitution by Bhimrao Ambedkar will be safeguarded, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, on April 28, said the organisation has always been in support of quotas and advocated for its implementation.

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Alleging that Modi privatised the public sector, Gandhi said the contract system implemented by the BJP-led government amounts to removing reservations. “We will remove contract systems in government offices and the public sector. Permanent jobs would be available, not temporary jobs,” he said.

“Narendra Modi has never said in his speeches till today that he will remove the 50% barrier of reservations,” he added.

The Supreme Court, in the 1992 Indra Sawhney (famously known as Mandal Commission) case, had fixed a ceiling of 50% on quota.

The Congress leader claimed that BJP leaders have told the people that if their party wins the general elections, they will change and finish the Constitution.

“If the Constitution is finished, reservation will end,” he said. The BJP wants backward classes, dalits, adivasis to remain backward, he alleged.

Gandhi said that more than 90% of the population comprises backward classes, adivasis, minorities and the poor in the general category, and that they don’t have a place in any organisation in the country.

A nationwide caste census promised by the Congress in its poll manifesto would change the politics of the country because such poor and 90% of the people would come to know about their population and share, the Congress leader said.

“We will hold a survey of every organisation in the country. We will find out how much money the backward classes, dalits, adivasis and the poor have. After the caste census, there will be new politics in Telangana and in the country,” he said.

Gandhi also said the Constitution should be safeguarded and reservations should be increased.

The incumbent government of the rich should be dislodged from power at the Centre and the government of the poor, farmers, dalits and others should be installed, he said.

(With inputs from agencies)

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