Lucknow: Union minister and Lok Jan Shakti Party president Ram Vilas Paswan, on Thursday, slammed the Congress for having double standards on the issue of dalits.

“The Congress has double standards when Rahul Gandhi eats in the homes of dalits and when BJP president Amit Shah does the same. The Congress is accusing BJP of playing politics when its leaders share food with dalits but when Mr Rahul Gandhi does the same, they claim it is social justice,” he said and adding that there should be no politics on sharing food with dalits.

Mr Paswan, while talking about the reservation in promotion issue, said that the Modi government is determined to strengthen the SC/ST Act and also favors reservation in promotion.

He blamed BSP president Mayawati for abusing upper castes before elections and then spurning dalits after elections. “She provokes dalits when elections are round the corner for electoral gains,” he said.

Mr Paswan , who is minister for consumer affairs, food and public distribution, said that investigations had revealed 12 crore fake ration cards in the country.

“We are now linking ration cards with Aadhaar cards to check fraud and ensure that the food grain reaches the beneficiaries,” he added.