Ahmedabad: Rajasthan Deputy Chief Minister Prem Chand Bairwa attacked the Congress over Rahul Gandhi’s remarks on the reservation issue, claiming that the opposition party has been against reservation since the time of the country’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. Addressing a press conference in Gandhinagar, Bairwa claimed that Rahul Gandhi’s party has always misused constitutional provisions to achieve its political goals and neglected welfare objectives.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader made the remarks at a time when Rahul Gandhi, during his recent visit to the US, had told students at Georgetown University that the Congress would think about abolishing reservation when there would be equal opportunities for everyone in the country. “At present, such a situation does not exist in India,” he had said. Bairwa said, “During his recent visit to the US, Rahul Gandhi had said that his party would abolish reservation after coming to power. Gandhi is singing the same tune that his party has been saying since the time of Jawaharlal Nehru. Look at the history.”
The BJP leader said, the Congress party ruled this country for almost 57 years and it always misused the constitutional provisions to achieve its political goals and ignored welfare objectives. He claimed that the Nehru government had rejected the Kaka Kalelkar report in 1956 which recommended reservation for backward classes. The Rajasthan Deputy Chief Minister said that Nehru had said in a letter to all Chief Ministers in 1961 that reservation would reduce productivity. Nehru also tried to end the political and social career of Dr BR Ambedkar by defeating him in the 1952 and 1954 elections.
Bairwa said that by removing Article 370 and 35A from Jammu and Kashmir, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given justice to the Scheduled Caste people of that region. He said that it is Modi who gave constitutional status to the National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC). Bairwa said, Indira Gandhi delayed giving reservation to the OBC community by not implementing the Mandal Commission recommendations. In 1985, Rajiv Gandhi also objected to the Mandal Commission recommendations and advocated reservation for Muslims, which was against the Constitution made by Ambedkar.
