Quota not at threat: Sushil
2 min readPatna: Deputy chief minister and BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi on Thursday said without the development of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes the country cannot grow and said no one could take away reservation benefits given to the communities by the Constitution of India.
Modi was airing his views during an event organised by non-political organisation Kabir ke Log on the occasion of the birth anniversary of former deputy prime minister late Babu Jagjivan Ram.
The assertion of the BJP leader assumes significance as it came at a time when Opposition parties are on an offensive against the NDA government at the Centre after a recent directive of the Supreme Court vis-à-vis the provisions of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. Several Opposition parties had extended support to the recent Bandh call given by Dalits on the issue.
The main Opposition party in Bihar, the RJD, has also been accusing the BJP of hatching a conspiracy to end reservation benefits given to the SC/ST and OBCs. A similar issue had been raised by the RJD ahead of the 2015 Assembly elections in Bihar in which the BJP had failed to come up to its expectations.
Sensing trouble which may foment once again, the BJP leaders in Bihar have been trying hard to dismiss all such allegations and have been trying hard to project the party as the one that championed the cause of the Dalits.
The party’s strategy was more than clear during the birth anniversary event when Modi used the occasion to drive home the point that how the NDA government gave more teeth to the Act by introducing amendments in it.
“The Narendra Modi government made the Act more stringent in comparison to the past,” said the deputy CM.
Addressing the participants, Modi said misuse could not be made a ground for dilution of any Act and maintained that the BJP stood for giving reservation to the SC/ST in promotion and it also stood against introduction of any creamy layer in the reservation benefits given to the SC/ST.
The BJP leader also linked the development of the community with sustainable development issue and said without their development the goals of sustainable development could not be achieved.
The BJP seems to be on an overdrive when it comes to projecting itself as the true saviour of the Dalits and the party is going to organise a big event on the eve of Bhim Rao Ambedkar’s birth anniversary, on April 13 in Patna in which senior party leaders would take part.
The party leaders would also take part in an event to be held on the occasion of Ambedkar’s birth anniversary on April 14 in which LJP chief and Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan and chief minister Nitish Kumar are scheduled to take part.
Courtesy: The Telegraph
