The Union Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment, Ramdas Athawale said that economically backward people belonging to upper castes should be provided 25 per cent reservation. He said that the Central Government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi is not against the interests of the Dalits as is being alleged without basis by the Congress party. He Congress national president Rahul Gandhi is busy in spreading misinformation about the Modi government whereas he should be focusing his efforts on the Congress party. The Union Minister of State said this while talking to mediapersons in Nainital on Thursday.
Prasing the various works of the Central Government under Prime Minister Modi, Athawale said that efforts are also being undertaken to make Uttarakhan more prosperous. He said that during the tenure of the Congress government too there used to atrocities perpetrated on the Dalits. Similar crimes had also taken place in Uttar Pradesh under the Samajwadi Party government. Considering this, it is wrong for the opposition parties to claim that atrocities on the Dalits are increasing under the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance government. Instead of leveling such baseless allegations to gain political points, the political parties should rather give constructive suggestions for stopping atrocities on the backward sections. He went on to state that inter-caste marriages have now become more common in the country. All the Dalits have not remained backward anymore. Dalits are also becoming Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers and Indian Police Service (IPS) officers though the lot of the whole community has not improved yet. Under such circumstances, it would not to good to either remove or decrease reservation. However, without touch the reservation provided to scheduled caste, scheduled tribes and other backward classes, reservation should also be facilitated for the economically weaker members of upper castes. Athawale recalled that he had submitted a proposal in front of Prime Minister Narendra Modi for 25 per cent reservation for economically weaker people belonging to upper caste in the NDA meeting. He said that though the Supreme Court had prohibited provision of more than 50 per cent reservation in total, a way could be worked out. The parliament has the right to enact laws, he added.