Amidst the ongoing Lok Sabha Elections 2024, the grand old party has, on several occasions, unabashedly reiterated the party’s intent to redistribute reservations along religious lines. Now, when the nation is gearing up for the 7th and final phase of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) Wednesday (May 29) released a video advertisement with the hashtag #MeraVoteMeraAdhikar, wherein it attempted to expose the Congress’ history of encroaching on the reservation of our Dalit, tribal, backward, and extremely backward classes to appease the ‘minority’ community.
In the 0.48-second video, the saffron party demonstrated how the Congress party, which has been resorting to peddling fake news and creating mass hysteria among the marginalised communities about the SC/ST/OBC reservations, has altered the Constitution, removed reservations for SC/ST/OBCs in ‘minority’ institutions, and eaten into the OBC sub-quota over time.
मैं नहीं दूंगा इनको अपना आरक्षण छीनने का अधिकार और न ही दूंगा इनको वोट।
— BJP (@BJP4India) May 29, 2024
आपका संवैधानिक हक छीनने वालों से खबरदार।
देशहित में जारी…#MeraVoteMeraAdhikar pic.twitter.com/S3Yd5ja0oF
In the advertisement, some youngsters are seen discussing how Congress has always opposed the backward society, ignored Baba Saheb Ambedkar, and never worked to deliver justice to the tribals. They shed light on how Congress is the only party which did not allow SC/ST/OBC reservations at government-run institutions like Jamia Millia and Aligarh Universities.
They are heard further reminding how the Congress’ 2009 election manifesto specifically mentioned that the Indian National Congress has pioneered reservations for minorities in Kerala, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh in government employment and education.
Further, they recall how as soon as the Congress came into power in 2004, they decided to give reservations to Muslims out of the SC/ST quota in Andhra Pradesh. They tried to implement Muslim reservations, however, failed to do so. Congress tried to implement it in the entire country in 2011.
Similarly, in 2015, the erstwhile Congress administration in Andhra Pradesh headed by YS Rajashekar Reddy attempted five times in 2015 to grant the SC/ST reservation to members of the Muslim community. The move was struck down by the Andhra Pradesh High Court.
Throwing light on Congress’ dangerous ploy to provide SC/ST/OBC reservations to Muslims in its efforts to appease its core vote bank, the video gives out a message to the citizens of the country to use their franchise to vote judiciously.
Religion-based reservation will not be allowed till BJP in power: JP Nadda
Recently, BJP president JP Nadda reaffirmed the party’s intention to oppose any efforts by other political parties, such as the Congress, to remove reservations from Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and Other Backward Classes and reallocate them based on religious grounds.
JP Nadda clarified that there will be no reservation based on religion as long as Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the party are in power.
“It is clearly written in the Constitution that there will be no religion-based reservation,” he said, accusing the opposition of planning to give reservations based on religion.
Similarly, senior BJP leader Amit Shah also recently spoke about Congress’ intent to reduce OBC reservation and give it to Muslims if they are voted to power.
On Sunday, 28th April, Home Minister Amit Shah called out Rahul Gandhi and Congress party for deceiving people by telling baseless lies. Reacting to Congress’s statement where they claimed Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) would abolish reservation if it came back to power, Home Minister Shah said that the BJP has been in power with the full majority for ten years, if the party had any plan to abolish reservation, it would have done it long back. Notably, Congress used a fake, edited video of HM Shah to make the false claims.
While busting the lies, Shah spoke on how Congress has always tried to manipulate and take away reservations meant for SC/ST/OBCs and give it to the Muslims.
Assuring everyone that BJP would not let anything happen to the reservations, Home Minister Shah said, “Today, I want to tell the people of the country that the Congress party has always attacked the reservations for SC/ST/OBC. When their government came to Karnataka, they cut 4% for minority reservations. Whose reservation got cut? OBCs.”
“Even today, SC/ST/OBC reservations are not allowed at Jamia Millia and Aligarh Universities. The sole reason for this is Congress’s policy towards SC/ST/OBC. They have always opposed the backward society, ignored Baba Saheb Ambedkar, and never worked to deliver justice to the tribals. Narendra Modi is the one who worked to deliver justice to the tribals by appointing Droupadi Murmu as the President. I want to remind the people of the country once again of Modi’s guarantee that as long as the BJP is in politics, there will be no harm to SC/ST/OBC reservations. This is Modi’s guarantee,” said Amit Shah.
