Dalit quotas are here to stay, promises PM

BJP sends clear signal ahead of state polls

After being caught on the wrong foot in the Bihar polls in 2015, when RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat’s comment on reviewing the reservations policy sent the BJP into a tailspin and ultimately cost it dearly, with crucial elections looming in states like Assam and West Bengal, Prime Minister Narendra Modi emphatically said on Monday that there will be no change in the policy on reservations for dalits.

Mr Modi added that no one could snatch their (dalits) rights as he accused his opponents of spreading “untruths” on the subject.

The PM also compared B.R. Ambedkar, the architect of the Indian Constitution, to Martin Luther King Jr, who fought for the rights of America’s blacks.

Delivering the Ambedkar Memorial Lecture, Mr Modi said: “Nothing has ever happened to reservations for dalits, tribals when we are in power, but still lies are being spread to mislead people... When Vajpayeeji became PM, a campaign was run saying reservations will be abolished. He was PM for two terms and nothing happened. The BJP has ruled Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Punjab and Haryana for many years... the quota policy never suffered. Yet, untruths are being spread. People who are only interested in politics fail to come out of it,” he added.

Asserting that quotas were the “right” of dalits and the underprivileged that nobody could snatch, the PM said: “As I had said earlier, even if Ambedkar appears today, (even) he cannot snatch this right of yours. What are we before Babasaheb ”

Last year, in the run-up to the Bihar Assembly polls, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat said the reservations policy needed a review and even suggested a “non-political committee” be set up to examine who needs the benefit of reservations and for how long.

The BJP had to later issue numerous clarifications on the matter and its opponents, the JD(U) and RJD, did not let go of a single opportunity to score several brownie points, thus leading to their victory at the hustings in Bihar.

Laying the foundation stone for the Ambedkar National Memorial here Monday, the PM targeted his opponents, accusing them of “spreading confusion and lies” on the issue and rued that while it “serves their politics”, such things “weaken” the social fabric of the nation.

The PM’s renewed pitch on reservations comes ahead of Assembly polls in four states — West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Assam and Kerala — and the Union territory of Puducherry starting next month.

Mr Modi repeatedly asked “why it took 60 years” to do it and reminded everyone that Dr B.R. Ambedkar, as law minister, had to resign from Jawaharlal Nehru’s Cabinet owing to lack of backing for the Hindu Code Bill that was a progressive move aimed to codifying and reforming Hindu personal law in India by giving women equal rights in many spheres such as property.

Terming it an “injustice” to call Dr Ambedkar only a messiah of dalits, the PM said he was the voice of all marginalised sections and was a “Vishwa Manav” (global citizen), likening him to Dr Martin Luther King Jr.

Training his guns on his political opponents, Mr Modi said it was “indeed difficult to digest defeat”, a swipe at the Congress which fared poorly in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. “Some people don’t like us. They don’t even want to see us. They get fever on seeing us and in fever, one loses control of the mind,” he quipped.