Mentality of BJP, RSS to abolish caste-based reservation: Congress

The Congress Party on Sunday alleged that it is the mentality of an 'orthodox and regressive' Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) to abolish reservation.

"The RSS wants the reservation should be over. It is a part of the BJP mentality to abolish reservation. They have been orthodox and regressive," Congress leader Sandeep Dikshit told ANI.

"Till we are equal in all rights, I think that the reservation should continue. Earlier when the reservation was made, it was believed that after 10-12 years the situation will come that everyone would have equal rights and after that there will be no need of reservation. It was believed that we will have equal education and competition but that will be possible after a long time," he added.

"However the experience shows that we have to go very far to make all classes equal. That is why all the thinkers, theorists, educationists and the likeminded think that time has not yet come to abolish reservation," he further said.

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.

"Ambedkar ji 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.