"Rajiv Gandhi Dubbed Those Who Got Reservation As Fools": PM Slams Congress

Prime Minister Narendra Modi lashed out at the Congress on Saturday, alleging that the "royal family" of the opposition party wants to do away with the reservation for Dalits and asserting that as long as he is there, he will not allow a fraction of the quota given by B R Ambedkar to be looted or removed. The prime minister said this while addressing his first rally in Haryana in the run-up to the October 5 state Assembly polls.

Addressing the rally in Kurukshetra district, PM Modi recalled certain incidents that took place when the Congress was in power in the state and asked the gathering, "Who knows the anti-Dalit face of the Congress better than Haryana?"

He accused the Gandhi family of being the "biggest anti-Dalit, anti-OBC and anti-tribal" force in the country.

"They have now said if they come to power, they will end the reservation for Dalits and the downtrodden. This is the truth of this family," PM Modi said.

The Gandhi family always "hated" BR Ambedkar and was strongly opposed to reservation, he alleged.

The family had "insulted" Dalits, Other Backward Classes (OBC) and tribals, the prime minister alleged further.

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been attacking the Congress, saying Rahul Gandhi is against reservation for the Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes and OBC, and his prejudice against the provision came out in the open during his recent interaction with the students of Georgetown University in the United States.

The BJP's accusation came after Mr Gandhi told the students at the prestigious university that the Congress would think of scrapping reservations when "India is a fair place", which he said is not the case right now.

Taking on the country's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, PM Modi claimed that he too had opposed reservation.

"He had written to the chief ministers of the states in this regard. There is proof of this. Nehruji had said if people get jobs due to reservation, the quality of government service will drop. These were the words of Nehruji," he said.

Jawaharlal Nehru put the Kakasaheb Kalekar Commission's report on the OBC reservation on the back burner, he claimed, adding that Jawaharlal Nehru's daughter, former prime minister Indira Gandhi, had also stalled the OBC reservation.

The Mandal Commission was formed under the Janata Party government but when the Congress returned to power, it put the commission's report on the back burner, he claimed.

"Rajivji (former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi) also did not let the OBC get reservation," he said.

Then Mandal Commission report was implemented during the V P Singh government, which was supported by the BJP, PM Modi said.

"As the opposition leader in Parliament, Rajiv Gandhi had opposed the reservation. In an interview, he had dubbed those who got reservations as 'buddhu'," he claimed.

There could not be a bigger insult to the SC, ST and OBC communities than this, the prime minister said.

"Now, the royal family of the Congress is again insisting on doing away with reservation. But the Congress should listen to me carefully. As long as PM Modi is here, I will not allow a fraction of the reservation given by Baba Saheb Ambedkar to be looted or removed.

"The SC, ST and OBC reservations will stay. This is Modi's guarantee and we will fight for it," he said.

No one knows the anti-Dalit face of the Congress better than the people of Haryana, the prime minister said, adding that whenever the grand old party formed its government in the state, it became difficult for Dalits to live.

Referring to a 2005 incident in Gohana, he said, "Can any Dalit family forget it? In 2010, there was the Mirchpur incident. In 2012, the Bhagana incident and in 2014, what happened to daughters of Dalits? The soul shivers when someone recalls that shameful incident." The then chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and the "royal family" of the Congress kept mum at that time, PM Modi said.

The Dalit community needs to remain alert of the Congress, he added.

In the Gohana incident, a few Dalit houses were set ablaze by some people after a man from the community was suspected of being involved in the killing of an upper-caste person.

In the Mirchpur incident, on April 21, 2010, a group of villagers belonging to an upper caste allegedly torched more than a dozen Dalit houses, killing a teenage girl and her aged father.

PM Modi asked the Congress to take care of its "androoni Mahabharat" (infighting).

"The way the Congress is doing its politics in Haryana by putting one family forward, the entire Dalit Samaj is watching it," he said, apparently referring to the Hooda family this time.

The prime minister asserted that the BJP government is committed towards the development of Haryana.

"During the previous Congress regime, corruption had become a ritual in Haryana," he alleged.

Youngsters suffered because of this as they could not get jobs without "kharchi-parchi (favouritism, corruption)", PM Modi said.

He said the BJP government ended this "game of kharchi-parchi".

The government gave 1.5 lakh jobs in a transparent manner, PM Modi said.

He said Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini is going to give 25,000 jobs to youngsters but the Congress "Bharti roko gang" is creating impediments to it.

The BJP forming its government in Haryana for a third straight time means "sabka vikas, tez vikas (fast development for all)", the prime minister said.

The 90-member Haryana Assembly is scheduled to go to polls on October 5 and the counting of votes will be taken up on October 8.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)