Accusing the BJP of shedding ‘’crocodile tears’’ in the name of Dalits, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) president Mayawati on Wednesday asked all the States to implement reservation in promotion policy for the Dalit community following Supreme Court’s direction.
“The Narendra Modi government was acting like the previous Congress governments by indirectly blocking the way for implementation of the reservation in promotion policy due to their anti-Dalit mentality,” she alleged, while adding that the BJP was just indulging in cheap politics like the Congress on the name of Dalits but doing nothing for them. She said they invoke Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar’s name for Dailt votes, but have no problem in making his followers a target of their casteist mindset.
In a statement issued by the Party here on Wednesday, Mayawati said that the reservation in promotion amendment bill has been struck in Parliament and its fate seems like the lok Pal bill. “Even after Bill’s passage by the Rajya Sabha, it has been struck in lok Sabha where the BJP has the majority,” she said. Alleging that the rights of the Dalits are being taken away by the present BJP government, she said that several posts of the SC/ST are still vacant in several departments besides several thousands have been reverted after the reservation in promotion has been withdrawn by some states including by Samajwadi Party’s government in Uttar Pradesh.
Mayawati further claimed that Apex Court is never against the reservation in promotions. “The Supreme Court has always held reservation for SCs/STs in promotions as constitutional but the complexities in its implementation had rendered it ineffective, especially in Uttar Pradesh, for which a constitutional amendment was brought in the Rajya Sabha,” she said. “But it is a matter of regret that it is pending in the lok Sabha for the past four years,” she added.
The BSP president’s statement comes after SC directed the Centre to go ahead in the promotion in reservation policy till a final judgement was given on the issue. The top court took into account the Centre’s submission that the entire process of promotions had come to a “standstill” due to the orders passed by various high courts, and the apex court had also ordered “status quo” in a similar matter in 2015. The government said there were separate verdicts by the high courts of Punjab and Haryana, Delhi and Bombay on the issue of reservation in promotion to SC/ST employees. The apex court had also passed different orders on appeals filed against those judgements, the government had argued.