Mulayam demands govt assurance on Constitution, reservation

Expressing concern over repeated amendments of the Constitution for "narrow gains", SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav today demanded an assurance from the government that the Constitution would not be further amended in the future and that there would be no review of quota.

Participating in the debate on commitment to the Constitution in Lok Sabha, Yadav said India's Constitution is the only Constitution in the world which has been amended the highest number times.

"No country in the world has amended their Constitution the way we did. Our Constitution was amended for the highest number of times, mostly for narrow gains," he said adding the SP condemns it.

The SP leader questioned whether the current generation of leaders have become more intelligent than the architects of the Constitution like B R Ambedkar.

"The SP opposes any amendment of Constitution. Ram Manohar Lohia had opposed it," he said.

Yadav demanded that the government should make a statement in Parliament assuring them that the Constitution would not be amended further.

He said Home Minister Rajnath Singh has already clarified in the House that the reservation provided to the backward communities would not be abolished, but there was no mention whether the quota system would not be reviewed.

"The Prime Minister should make a statement that there would be no review of reservation as suggested by the RSS chief," he said.

Yadav said the agenda of RSS is to review quota. He made fun of the controversial statement of RSS chief suggesting review of quota on the basis of economic status, before the Bihar Assembly elections.

"Thanks to the statement of the RSS chief, results of the Bihar election became satisfactory," he said.

The SP leader said social inequality was a reality of India and hence reservation on the basis of caste has to be continued.
Favouring separation of politics from religion, Yadav said fear psychosis prevails among minorities and weaker sections of the society.

"There is fear and insecurity among the minorities. Minorities living in the US, the UK, France or even in Bangladesh feel insecure. We all have to work together to end this atmosphere of insecurity," he said.