In its report submitted to the Government on May 21, 2007, the Commission among other things recommended 10 per cent of jobs for Muslims and five per cent for other minorities in government services and seats in educational institutions for minorities.
On a visit to Karnataka last week, UPA chairperson and Congress president Sonia Gandhi had launched an attack on the opposition BJP - accusing it of indulging in ‘zeher ki kheti' (sowing seeds of poison) to attain power. Modi had hit out later saying it is Congress, not BJP, sowing seeds of poison.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi last week stepped in to try to defuse the controversy over Dwivedi's suggestion for ending caste-based quota, declaring that reservation for SCs, STs and OBCs must continue.
Apparently targetting the Nehru-Gandhi family, Modi said, “one family thinks they have done everything for the country”, and went on to add that he considered people of the country as his family.
“I have not done anything for my family after becoming Chief Minister. Now I will do somthing for my family. Not to the family into which I was born. You (people) are my family,” he told the rally.
In a speech replete with references to reformers who fought casteism and untouchability in Kerala and outside like Sree Narayana Guru, Mahatma Jyotirao Phule, Ayyankali and B R Ambedkar, he said “with great humility and confidence I will tell you that Dalits, backward classes and other less privileged sections will have great say in the country in the next 10 years.”
Modi said history of the last century shows that most reformers were from backward communities or were Dalits who spent their lives in the service of the downtrodden.
Striking a personal note, Modi said he was fully aware of the hardships of the socially and economically backward sections as his mother had supported his family by washing vessels and drawing water for other households. He recalled that as a boy, he supported his family as “chai wallah” in a railway station.
