PM Modi clears air on Dalit reservation, says no dilution

Modi said, “It is a right that nobody can snatch.” He accused his opponents of spreading “untruths” on the issue.

Delivering the Ambedkar Memorial Lecture after laying the foundation stone in the Capital, the Prime Minister said, “Nothing has ever happened to the reservation for Dalits, tribals, when we are in power but still lies are being spread to mislead people. When Vajpayeeji became PM, a campaign was run saying reservation will be abolished. 

He was the Prime Minister for two terms and nothing of that sort happened. BJP has ruled in Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Punjab, and Haryana for many years and the quota policy never suffered a scratch. Yet untruths are being spread. People, who are only interested in doing politics, fail to come out of it.”

Asserting that quota is the “right” of the Dalits and the underprivileged that nobody can snatch, the Prime Minister noted, “As I had said earlier also that even if Ambedkar appears today, he cannot snatch this very right of yours. What are we before Baba Saheb.” Modi also compared Constitution architect BR Ambedkar to Martin Luther King who had fought for the rights of blacks.

The Prime Minister’s renewed pitch on reservation comes ahead of assembly polls in five states - West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Assam, Kerala and Puducherry beginning next month.  

He repeatedly questioned “why it took 60 years” to do it and reminded that Ambedkar as law minister had to resign from Jawaharlal Nehru’s cabinet owing to lack of backing on the Hindu Code Bill that was a progressive move aimed to codify and reform Hindu personal law in India by giving the women equal rights in many spheres like property.