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If Ambedkar was not there, Nehru would not have allowed reservations: PM

PM Narendra Modi alleged in a Bihar rally that SCs STs and OBCs never received any respect from late Congress Prime Ministers

ByPTI

Published May 21, 2024 | 8:19 PM ⚊ Updated May 21, 2024 | 8:22 PM

PM Modi says Congress PMs opposed reservation

PM Narendra Modi.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday, 21 May launched a fresh attack on the Congress, accusing its top leaders, including first PM Jawaharlal Nehru, of having “opposed” reservations for deprived castes.

“Had it not been for Baba Saheb Ambedkar, Nehru would have never agreed to quotas for Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs) and Other Backward Classes (OBCs). Nehru had made his views on the issue clear in letters he wrote to then Chief Ministers in the country,” claimed Modi at a rally in Purbi Champaran Lok Sabha constituency in Bihar.

“This has been the Congress’ trait under successive PMs. Be it, Indira Gandhi or Rajiv Gandhi, they all opposed reservations. SCs, STs and OBCs have never got respect from the Congress,” the PM added.

Modi made the allegation while lashing out at the opposition for spreading a “falsehood” that the BJP, upon return to power with a brute majority, could scrap quotas by changing the Constitution.

“The truth is that we have been protecting the rights of the deprived castes,” claimed PM Modi who spelt out his government’s measures to assert that “it is only with the NDA led by BJP that rights of SCs, STs and OBCs are secure”.

Modi also charged the INDIA bloc with having plans to give reservation benefits “on the basis of religion”.

“They want to do this because they are left with just one vote bank. They are no longer supported by SCs, STs and OBCs, so they now care for only those carrying out a vote jihad”, alleged Modi.

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