NEW DELHI: As the campaigning peaks for the third phase of Lok Sabha polls slated for May 7, the main opposition party Congress on Thursday sharpened its attack on the ruling BJP on several fronts -- attack on the Constitution, alleged sex scandal in Karnataka and the issue of ending reservation.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi accused the Modi government of “clandestinely snatching away” reservations from Dalits, tribals, and backward classes by “blindly” implementing privatisation, and said his party guarantees strengthening the public sector enterprises and opening the doors for employment.
In a post in Hindi on microblogging site X, Gandhi said the mantra of Narendra Modi’s campaign to remove reservation is -- ‘na rahega baans, na bajegi bansuri’, meaning neither there will be government jobs nor any reservation will be available.
“The BJP govt is clandestinely snatching away reservation from Dalits, tribals and backward classes by eliminating government jobs through ‘blind privatisation’,” the former Congress chief said.
In 2013, there were 14 lakh permanent posts in the public sector, which by 2023 stood at 8.4 lakh, he said. “By ruining top PSU’s like BSNL, SAIL, BHEL etc., nearly 6 lakh permanent jobs were eliminated from the public sector alone -- these are the very posts which would have given the benefit of reservation,” Gandhi said.
There is no count of the jobs that are being eliminated through the back door in institutions such as Railways by giving government work on contract, he claimed.
“The ‘privatisation’ of the Modi model is a plunder of the country’s resources, through which the reservation of the deprived is being snatched away,” he alleged.
The Congress guarantees that it will strengthen the public sector enterprises and open the doors for employment for every section of the society by filling 30 lakh vacant government posts, Gandhi said.
Addressing an election rally in Karnataka’s Shivmogga, Gandhi alleged that Hassan JD(S) MP Prajwal Revanna had raped 400 women and made their videos, and sought an apology from PM Modi for soliciting votes for him.
Targeting Modi, the Congress leader said that he should apologise to the women of India for seeking votes for the “mass rapist”. Prajwal, grandson of former Prime Minister and JD(S) patriarch H D Deve Gowda, is facing allegations of sexually abusing women.