Prime Minister Narendra Modi has accused India’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, of vetoing the idea of providing reservations for underprivileged castes. Yoga, speaking at a rally in Motihari, Bihar, said that only due to Dr B.R. Ambedkar’s persuasion did Nehru agree to quotas for the Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes, and the Other Backward Classes.
”I have been saying this even earlier, had it not been for Baba Saheb Ambedkar, Nehru would have never agreed for quotas for SCs, STs and OBCs”, the Prime Minister said and accused the Congress of continuing the the same policy all through under successive Prime Ministers.
Modi also directly criticized the opposition INDIA group for planning to give the reservation benefits to people “on religious grounds,” noting that they wanted to woo a specific “vote bank.”
He claimed that the Congress and its allies were “insulting the constitution” by attempting to alter the quota system, which is applicable for the Dalits, SCs, STs, and OBCs, for the Muslims.
The Prime Minister was speaking during the ongoing Lok Sabha elections campaign. He has been vehement in his accusations against the Congress party of planning to tinker with the present reservation system. While making his stand clear, Modi said people belonging to the SCs, STs, and OBCs have adequate protection in the NDA government headed by the BJP only.
The opposition has, however, dismissed these claims and termed the prime minister a ‘Divider-in-Chief’ as he was making ‘divisive’ statements with a political agenda. Reservation policy and representation of weaker sections of society are some of the issues that people will foresee in the polls.
