Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati launched a sharp attack on Rahul Gandhi, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, and his party Congress on Tuesday, labelling the party as "anti-reservation", accusing it of having a "duplicitous and deceptive" reservation policy for Dalits and backward classes.
'Hypocritical and double-faced'
In a series of posts on the social media platform 'X', she said that Congress and Rahul Gandhi's stance on SCs, STs and OBCs reservation policy is hypocritical and double-faced. "The SC/ST/OBC reservation policy of the Congress and Rahul Gandhi is not clear, rather duplicitous and deceptive. In our country, they support reservations for votes and advocate for increasing it beyond 50 per cent, while abroad they talk about abolishing those reservations. People should be alert to their double standards," she further said.
The BSP chief further hit out at the Congress for not having implemented the Mandal Commission report on OBC reservation. Mayawati added, "It is also true that their government at the Centre did not implement the Mandal Commission report regarding OBC reservations. Furthermore, the amendment Bill brought to Parliament to effectively implement the reservation for SC/ST in promotions, owing to BSP's struggle, was not allowed to pass by the Congress, and it remains pending."
Congress an "anti-reservation" party
Calling Congress an "anti-reservation" party, Mayawati accused it of not having conducted the 'caste census' during its tenure and said, "And neither did their government plead the case properly in the Hon'ble Court. These people should also be cautious of the anti-reservation Congress and other parties. Moreover, the Congress government at the Centre did not conduct a caste census, and now, being out of power, they are raising their voices. What else is this, if not hypocrisy?"
Notably, this statement has come after Rahul Gandhi's remarks on reservation during his visit to the United States. On September 9, Rahul Gandhi said that the Congress party would think of scrapping reservations when India becomes a "fair place," which it is not. The Congress leader was interacting with students and faculty at Georgetown University in Washington, DC. He also reiterated the need to conduct a caste census while saying that 90 per cent of the country's population--OBCs, Dalits, and Adivasis--not having proper representation in the country is the "elephant in the room."
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