Claiming that the BJP’s opposition to the Dalits, tribals and people from the backward classes ran in its DNA, senior Congress leader Mallinkarjun Kharge said here on Saturday that the Uttarkhand Government and the Centre were trying to strike off the reservation given to the SC, ST and OBC by the Constitution.
“The BJP Government in Uttarakhand told the Supreme Court that the reservation in jobs for the ST and SC’s is not their fundamental right. And it’s not the responsibility of the Government to give these reservations in Government jobs.
And unfortunately the Supreme Court too has given a verdict saying that giving reservations in Government jobs is not mandatory for the Government,” Mallikarjun said in a statement issued here.
Maintaining that the stand by the Uttarakhand Government in the apex court was the first step towards ending reservation, Mallikarjun said: ”When we raised the issue of BJP's attempt to end the reservation in the Parliament, the Modi Government gave misguiding answers and skirted away from taking the responsibility”.
Alluding to a petition filed by the Uttarakhand Government filed a petition in the Supreme Court on Mukesh Kumar incident on November 19, 2019, Mallkarjun said: “On February 7, 2020 based on the tactful reply filed by the Uttarakhand government, the Supreme Court gave a reply that the reservations were not mandatory.
There is no question of any role of the previous Congress Government in Uttarakand in the issue and by giving false information in the Parliament they Minister tried to misguide us”.
Mallikarjun said that the Congress was standing firmly behind them and any attempt by the BJP will be aggressively opposed by the Congress party. “And for it the Congress party will go to any extent without thinking twice,” he said
“The Narendra Modi government has tried to end the SC, ST sub plan and for which funds have been reduced for the schemes for the Dalits, OBC's and Tribals. The Congress government in fact tried to allot funds to SC, ST sub plan based on the proportion of the population,” he said.