BJP sidelined itself from RSS chief’s remarks on quota

RJD chief Lalu Prasad on Monday dared RSS and BJP to end the reservation policy, if they have strength.

“I challenge the RSS and the BJP to end reservations”, the former Bihar chief minister said on Twitter in response to the RSS chief’s suggestion to review the policy of reservation.

Lalu Prasad said 80 percent of the country’s population was made up of Dalits and people from backward classes who would oppose any attempt to do away with reservation. We’ll increase the reservation percentage for different communities pro rent communities proportionate to their population.

“In his interview RSS “sarsanghchalak” Mohan Bhagwat did not speak about reservations being given to the weaker sections of society presently”.

“If the Narendra Modi government tries to toe the line of Bhagwat, if it tries to tamper with the humanitarian provision of reservation as enshrined in the Constitution, then BSP will launch a nation-wide mass agitation which will prove costly to the government”, she said at a press conference in New Delhi. Bhagwat’s assertion provided fodder to pro-Mandal politicians, including RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, to invoke identity politics which BJP has been trying to scuttle in favour of development agenda. Since inception, it has been politicised.

“Reservation is a settled issue in India”.

Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad also spoke to the media and said there should be a debate how to extend the benefit of reservation to those poor and backward classes who have been left out.

“It is the BJP’s firm commitment since Jan Sangh days that reservation is essential for social and economic development and empowerment of SCs, STs, backward and extremely backward castes”.

The statement in an interview to RSS mouthpiece “Organiser” sparked off reactions from not just Opposition parties but also from within the NDA.

He said though “interest groups” do get formed in democracy, aspirations of one section should not be met at the cost of others. “They should decide which categories require reservation and for how long“, said the RSS head.

“It is excessive time to seek out out whether or not the castes for whom reservation was offered have benefitted from it. It additionally wanted to be came upon that whether or not the castes receiving advantages of reservation want it in future”. Bhagwat claimed that if the quotas had been implemented according to the vision of the Constitution makers, there wouldn’t have been any questions on the issue.