BJP leader promises to safeguard reservations for backward classes

Srinagar, August 24

The Baharatiya Janata Party on Saturday accused Congress and National Conference alliance in Jammu and Kashmir of trying to scrap the reservation for Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs) and Other Backward Classes (OBCs) and disempower these marginalised communities.

Addressing a press conference in Jammu, senior BJP leader Devender Singh Rana said, “The Congress has aligned with the National Conference, which, in its manifesto, talked about removal/review of reservations to SCs, STs and OBCs — whether it is political reservation or reservation for jobs — to deprive them of their constitutional rights.”

He added, “The Congress has always played with the destiny of the people for its greed for power and now it has exposed its designs to go against the reservations granted to Dalits, Gujjars, Paharis and OBCs, some of whom got this right only after the abrogation of Article 370.” In its manifesto for the Assembly election, the National Conference has promised to review the reservation policy to correct “any injustice and imbalance”, without mentioning any specific group.

Stating that the BJP will not allow to succeed this dubious design of the National Conference and Congress to disempower these segments in employment, education and politics, he said, “We will not allow them to play with the destiny of the SCs, Gujjars, Paharis and OBCs.”

Rana also criticised the Congress for aligning with the National Conference in the “anti-reservation plank”, so much so that “its national president Malikarjun Kharge and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, specially flew from New Delhi to Srinagar to ink alliance with the forces inimical to the Constitution.”

“Soon after unveiling of the divisive and anti-people manifesto of the NC, the Congress leadership led by Gandhi scion took a sense of pride in endorsing the anti-reservation document by forging alliance with the party that has all along discriminated against the marginalised segments of society,” said Rana.

The BJP leader also criticised the NC and the Congress for polarising the society and creating divisions for securing political mileage. “Whenever the two parties have come together, the marginalised people have remained at the receiving end. During their coalition governments in J&K from time to time, the Jammu region was always discriminated against,” he said.

Rana also referred to change in the nomenclature of the world-famous Shankaracharya Hill in Srinagar as ‘Takht-e-Suleman’ and Hari Parbhat as ‘Kohe-Maran’ in the National Conference manifesto and termed this as “direct assault on the faith and identity of a community.”

“NC is playing with our identity as Shankaracharya Hill and Hari Parbhat are matters of faith for Sanatanis,” he said.