PM Modi cites 1991 Cong ad, says its quota pitch opportunistic | India News – Times of India

NEW DELHI/RANCHI: An election ad Congress issued for its 1991 Lok Sabha campaign slamming the reservation regime where people’s destiny was decided by caste and not by merit found a new lease of life with PM Narendra Modi citing this to say that Congress’s current pitch for caste census and for raising the ceiling on quota was an opportunistic switch.
“People have shared a Congress campaign when Rajiv Gandhi was the party leader in which they have talked about SC/ST people in a highly objectionable manner. Congress party has openly opposed the quota system and the language they have used for SC/ST/OBC people was clumsy,” the PM said while interacting virtually with BJP volunteers from Jharkhand under the ‘Mera Booth Sabse Majboot’ programme.
BJP circulated the Congress advertisement, saying that in 1991, the party was preparing to end reservations meant for SCs, STs and OBCs. “This ad was one such attempt. It exposes their nefarious plans. Recently, during his US visit, Rahul Gandhi again spoke about scrapping reservations. Left to the Congress, there would be no reservations for backwards. Muslims alone will corner all benefits,” BJP IT department head Amit Malviya said in a post on X.
Modi said no one dared talk about reservations when Congress was in office. “There was a time when Congress was in power from panchayat to Parliament… then none dared to talk about quota and Congress used to suppress those who demanded it. From Jawaharlal Nehru to Rahul Gandhi, all had opposed reservation in govt jobs. For years, Dalit and Adivasi society was divided until they got the identity as SC and SC. Even OBC people got their due only in 1990,” he said.
Modi said people of Jharkhand were determined to bring change. The biggest reason for this, he said, was that JMM, Congress and RJD had attacked Jharkhand’s “roti, beti and maati” — a reference to BJP’s charges of corruption under the JMM-Congress coalition, infiltration of Bangladeshis and the rise in atrocities on women and loss of land belonging to tribals.
“They talked big in the last five years, but today the people of Jharkhand are seeing that most of their promises are false,” Modi said.