The Congress on Monday hit out at RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat for saying people should put across their views on the reservation in a harmonious atmosphere. Senior Congress leaders said that he was raking up reservation issue to divert the attention of the people from the real issues such as economic slowdown and Article 370. He said people are in stress as the economy is slowing down but the saffron party made Bhagwat say something on the reservation to divert the attention. “This has become the habit of BJP and its ideological master RSS to keep raking up issues and creating conflict in the society — issues on which opinions are sharply divided,” Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera said.
He further said that the grand old party has been trying to expose the design of all such comments and the narrative that is triggered by the present government and its ideological masters — RSS. Khera said that this was not the first time Bhagwat raised the reservation issue but people should know why an attempt has been made to create conflict among people and what are the issues that this government wants to divert our attention from.
Congress media cell in-charge Randeep Singh Surjewala said that the RSS and BJP’s anti-Dalit face has been exposed. “The conspiracy to end the reservation of the poor and the next policy of changing the Constitution was revealed,” he said while sharing a news report. He also said that the real agenda of the saffron party was to attack the rights of the poor, crush the rights of constitutional rights and snatch away the rights of Dalits and backward.
Not only Congress, the BSP too slammed the RSS chief for his statement and said that such remarks would generate a dangerous situation of doubt which was not required. In a tweet, BSP supremo Mayawati said that the reservation is a humanitarian and constitutional provision, and disturbing it would be an injustice and improper. “It would be better if the Sangh sheds its anti-reservation mindset,” the former chief minister said.
On Sunday, Mohan Bhagwat while speaking at IGNOU had said that those who support reservation should speak keeping in mind the interests of those are against it. This is the second time the RSS chief called for a debate on the reservation. In September 2015, Bhagwat called for a committee to review the current reservation. “Form a committee of people genuinely concerned for the interest of the whole nation and committed for social equality, including some representatives from society, they should decide which categories require reservation and for how long,” Bhagwat said in an interview to Organiser. This statement came just weeks before the assembly elections in Bihar. The opposition cornered the saffron party which could not convince the people and lost the elections badly. The BJP has been very defensive on this issue and it has maintained that it will not tinker with the existing reservation.
Keeping this in mind, the Congress has once again sharpened its attack on the BJP. However, this latest remarks from grand old party leaders come at a time when their party is itself divided over Article 370.
