The fear mongering
Congress leadership is desperate after having faced a ‘washout’ from the Centre
for ten consecutive years and no signs whatsoever of coming back to power in
the next five years at least. The leadership is also losing patience as they seem
to have ascertained the intentions of the voters. And presumably as a result of
their frustration, they have started disseminating false narrative that the
Bharatiya Janata Party will amend the constitution once it regains power. This
is nothing but their yet another attempt at winning over the electorates. I’m
confident that the astute Indian voter won’t accept such narratives promoted by
these leaders, who themselves have at least 80 times amended the Constitution,
denied reservation to the OBCs and insulted Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar, the father
of Indian Constitution, numerous times.
Congress has always tried
to defame and bring discredit to the BJP. From the outset, they have opposed
reservation for Dalits and other backward classes. In 1961, the then Prime
Minister Jawaharlal Nehru wrote to the then chief minister expressing his objection
to reservation for Dalits and the backward classes. In fact, both, the Kaka
Kalelkar Commission and the Mandal Commission had recommended reservation to
the OBCs and a report suggesting reservation was also received by the then
central government. But the Congress, that ruled the Centre for a very long
period, declined to put the recommendations into practice. Later, in 1990, the
VP Singh government that came to power with support of the BJP, put the Mandal
Commission’s recommendations into practice. And in this way, the OBCs were able
to get 27 percent reservation. In fact, the Modi government was instrumental in
granting constitutional status to the Backward Classes Commission.
In Karnataka, the
Congress government classified Muslims as OBCs and granted reservation. Here,
it is important to note that Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar was against granting
reservation based on religion. On what criterion did the Congress government
categorize all Muslims as backward class in Karnataka is inapprehensible. The
OBC community is entitled to reservations as per the provisions of the
Constitution. But by including Muslims in OBC category, they violated the
latter’s constitutional rights. In fact, the Congress had implemented religious
reservation in the earlier unified Andhra Pradesh as well wherein Muslims were
granted reservation from the Dalits’ and backward classes’ reserve quota. Dr.
Manmohan Singh’s government also established a commission under the leadership
of Justice Ranganath Mishra to look into Muslim reservation wherein the
commission had recommended the then central government to reduce reservation
for Dalits and backward classes and instead grant it to the Muslims. It must be
noted that Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar was against giving reservation based on
religion and hence there was no such provision made in the constitution as
well.
Recently, Sam Pitroda, a
known ally of the Gandhi family, said that Pandit Nehru was more influential in
making of the constitution than Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar. In fact, Dr. Ambedkar
was also against inclusion of Article 370 and Article 35(A) in the Constitution.
But Pandit Nehru went ahead and included these Kashmir-related provisions in
the constitution despite the opposition. It was due to these clauses that the
backward classes, tribal people and Dalits in Jammu & Kashmir were
deprived of due justice. It also caused the highly educated youth from the
Dalit community to be restricted to employment with the Kashmir government as
‘safai’ workers. Regardless of their qualifications, the Dalit youths were
denied jobs as officers, clerks, teachers or even academicians only because of
Articles 370 and 35(A). Today, following Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s repeal
of Article 370, the Indian Constitution’s reservations for Dalits, the Backward
Classes and tribal people in Jammu & Kashmir began to be granted. It
must be noted that owing to Article 370, Dr. Ambedkar’s constitution could not
be implemented in J&K. It is only today, that Dr. Ambedkar’s
constitution is being implemented in its true sense across the nation.
Unfortunately, the Congress and its allied partners in the I.N.D.I Alliance are
assuring to reinstate Article 370 in Kashmir. In that case, Kashmir’s backward
castes and Dalits will never be eligible for reservation.
It is interesting to note
during its tenure, the Congress amended the Constitution roughly around 80
times. The Indira Gandhi government declared Emergency in 1975, defeating the
fundamental goal of the Constitution. Congress never honored Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar.
In fact, the Congress had defeated Dr. Ambedkar in both the Constituent
Assembly and Lok Sabha elections. The party with the longest reign at the
Centre, the Congress, never presented Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar with a Bharat
Ratna. It was the BJP-backed Singh administration that bestowed Bharat Ratna to
Dr. Ambedkar as a mark of national respect in 1990. Narendra Modi-led
government identified five significant locations connected to Dr. Ambedkar’s
memories and transformed them into ‘Panchtirtha’.
Now, the Congress
leadership is also opposing the CAA Act owing to pressure from the Marxist
Communist Party. Congress has also assured to repeal CAA in its manifesto. With
the help of this Act, the most persecuted communities – Hindus, Sikhs, Parsis,
Buddhists and Jains – who fled Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan after
suffering atrocities, will be able to get Indian citizenship. Those who sought
refuge in India prior to 2014 will also be eligible to obtain Indian
citizenship. Nearly 70-75% of these people who sought refuge are people from
the Scheduled Castes. Even a large number of oppressed people from Bangladesh’s
‘Namoshudra’ and ‘Matua’ communities fled to India. Today, if the CAA gets
repealed, all these people from the Scheduled Castes will be severely impacted.
A case in point is the
establishment of Aligarh Muslim University in 1920 and Banaras Hindu University
in 1916. While Aligarh Muslim University does not offer reservations for Dalits
and other backward castes, Banaras Hindu University does, in accordance with
the Constitution. In fact, it was the Indira Gandhi government that had
abolished reservation for the Dalits and backward classes in Aligarh Muslim
University by amending the Constitution in 1981. The Allahabad High Court had
also invalidated the constitutional changes made by Indira Gandhi
administration in its 2005 and 2006 judgements. But still, till date, Dalits
and students from the backward classes are not able to get reservation in this
university. This is the outcome of the appeasement politics of the Congress.
It is important to
highlight that the Modi government carried out several welfare projects for the
tribal people, Dalits and the backward classes during its ten-year tenure,
something that no other government has ever done since independence. It’s time
the nation realizes that the main threat to the Constitution is Congress. And
hence there is not an ounce of doubt in my mind that the electorates will not
fall for Congress’s disingenuous rhetoric.
(Article Pre-Published in Times of India -06 May 2024)
Keshav Upadhye, Chief Spokesperson
No comments:
Post a Comment