Caste-based reservations row: Congress brands Govt. 'anti-Dalit'

The Congress Party on Sunday criticised the BJP-led NDA Government after Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan advocated a "rethink" on caste-based reservations in the country and alleged that it reflected the anti-Dalit mindset of the ruling dispensation.

Congress leader Kapil Sibal branded the government as 'anti-Dalit' while asserting that they have always voiced their support for the people of upper caste.

"Actually, the RSS has been from day one, 1947 and before, anti-Dalit. It was anti-Dalit, it is anti-Dalit and it will be anti-Dalit," Sibal told the media here.

"It's not in their DNA to be pro-Dalit because they are people of 'Savarna Jati' and cannot be in favour of Dalits," he added.

Another Congress leader Manish Tewari cited the article mentioned in the Constitution of India to prove his point.

"The Constitution talks about reservation for socially and educationally backward classes, if you read the article 15 or 16 of Constitution of India. So, fundamentally what requires the revisit is the question whether a class which is what the Constitution mandated is equivalent to caste," Tewari told ANI.

The Lok Sabha Speaker had yesterday advocated a 'rethink' on caste-based reservations in the country while asserting that even Father of the Indian Constitution Babasaheb Ambedkar had supported the same.

"Ambedkarji had said, 'Give reservations for 10 years and after 10 years, do a rethink. Bring them to that stage'. We have done nothing. Even I am guilty of this. We have not thought about it. We do not contemplate why this (a rethink) has not happened," she said while addressing officials and representatives of local bodies at an event on smart cities in Ahmedabad.