"Sword of danger hanging over reservation for SC and STs": PM Modi attacks Congress
Apr 29, 2024
New Delhi [India], April 29 : Coming hard over the Congress over "religion-based" reservation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday hit back at the party for its anti-reservation stand for SCs, STs and OBCs in 1990 and said that it's his duty to inform the public about it, who are raising the issue for their "political gains".
In an interview with CNN News 18, the PM said that Congress wants to end reservation and give it to Muslims, saying that the "sword of danger is hanging over reservation for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and other backward class".
"In the 2024 Congress' Manifesto, I said that it has the imprint of the Muslim League. The way they are destroying the Constitution, insulting Babasaheb Ambedkar. There is a sword of danger hanging over reservations for SCs and STs. Should I not inform the people of the country about this?" he said.
He also recalled that before the 1990s, Congress completely opposed the reservation.
"You see the history of the Congress; this demand (for reservation) has been raised since the 1990s. There is a huge section of society that felt something should be done for them, there were protests for it. Before 1990, Congress completely opposed it. Then whatever commissions and committees they formed, their reports also started coming in favour of OBCs. But they kept denying these views," he said.
PM Modi pointed out that after the 1990s, because of their (Congress) vote bank politics, they felt that something needed to be done.
"The first sin they committed was in the 90s when they decided to classify Muslims as OBCs in Karnataka while suppressing and rejecting OBCs for political gains," he added.
The Prime Minister also mentioned that Congress' plan remained stalled till 2004 and when they came back to power, they decided to give OBC quota to Muslims in Andhra Pradesh.
"The matter got stuck in court. The Parliament had decided to give a 27 per cent quota to OBCs in line with the spirit of the Constitution. Now, they tried to loot this 27 per cent quota too. In 2011, there was a cabinet note on this where they decided to give a share of the OBC quota to Muslims. In 2012, the Andhra High Court cancelled it. They went to the Supreme Court, and even there, they did not get any relief. In the 2014 manifesto, they talked about giving reservations based on religion," PM Modi said.
He also emphasised that when the Constitution of India was made, no RSS or BJP people were present there. Babasaheb Ambedkar, Pandit Nehru, Sardar Vallabh and several great men were present, and after a long discussion, they decided that reservation cannot be given based on religion in a country like India.
