‘Rahul Gandhi’s anti-reservation sentiments reflected during US tour; campaign to save Constitution a charade,’ says BJP

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said on Tuesday that Rahul Gandhi is against reservation for the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes. The Congress leader's prejudice against the provision, the saffron party said, came out in the open during his interaction with students of Georgetown University in the United States of America.

The BJP's accusation came after Rahul Gandhi told the students at the university that the Congress would think of scrapping reservations when ‘India is a fair place’, which he said is not the case right now.

Responding to Gandhi's comments, BJP leader and former Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said, "Rahul Gandhi, who pleads and claims to be saving the Constitution, has said in America that he (his party) will scrap reservation when the conditions so warrant a fairness."

"With this, the prejudice against reservation which Rahul Gandhi has in abundance got reflected in America," Prasad was quoted as saying in a PTI report. He alleged that the Congress leader's campaign to save the Constitution and save reservation is nothing but a 'charade'.

Rahul Gandhi, the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha is on a three-day tour of US.

Prasad said that former prime ministers Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi were also against providing reservation to the members of the Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST) and Other Backward Classes (OBC).

He also targeted the opposition INDIA bloc and asked DMK chief M K Stalin, RJD supremo Lalu Prasad, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav and leaders of the Left parties to break their silence on Gandhi's remark.

"I want to warn (people) that if the Congress tries to tamper with the provision of reservation in any way or scrap it, the BJP will vehemently oppose it," he said.

During the Lok Sabha elections 2024, the Congress-led opposition INDIA bloc had launched a fierce campaign against the BJP alleging that the saffron party would change the Constitution and end reservation if voted back to power.

Constitution not in danger until PM Modi is alive

Union Minister Ramdas Athawale also slammed Rahul Gandhi over his remarks saying that there was no need to go outside India and talk about reservations, adding that as long as Prime Minister Narendra Modi is alive, there is no threat to the Constitution.

"I think reservation in India will end when people from the bottom come up, here everyone should get economic justice along with social justice. When Rahul Gandhi goes outside India, he talks against India. There is no need to go there and talk about reservations. The Constitution is not in danger. As long as Prime Minister Modi and we are alive, there is no threat to the Constitution," Athawale told news agency ANI.

It is said that opposition camp's pitch on the issue of reservation was one of the key reasons behind the BJP ending up winning 240 seats in Lok Sabha Elections 2024.

"We will think of scrapping reservations when India is a fair place. And India is not a fair place," Gandhi, the Raebareli MP said in the US. "When you look at the financial numbers, tribals get 10 paise out of ₹100; Dalits get ₹5 out of ₹100, and OBCs get a similar number. The fact of the matter is that they're not getting participation," he said.

Prasad said it was not an ‘off-the-cuff comment.’ "It's a well thought out strategy and conspiracy" of the Congress to scrap the provision of reservation on getting such an opportunity, he alleged, adding, "The Congress is anti-reservation. It opposes the interests of Dalit, Adivasi and OBCs."

Prasad alleged that Gandhi is on a mission mode to "demean, degrade and insult" India whenever he goes abroad referring to the remarks the Congress leader made abroad so far. "His love for China also becomes visible," the BJP leader added.

(With PTI inputs)