‘Fear of court forced reluctant PM to give 27% reservation for OBCs in medical seats’

Had it not been for the contempt of court case filed by Congress and DMK, Prime Minister Narendra Modi would not have bothered to implement the 27% reservation for OBCs in the national quota of medical seats, Karnataka-in-charge for Congress Randeep Singh Surjewala said on July 30.

Addressing a media conference in Hubballi, along with KPCC president D.K. Shivakumar, opposition leaders Siddaramaiah and S.R. Patil, Mr. Surjewala said that although the Congress government had passed the bill making provision for 27% reservation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had not bothered give effect to it despite being in power for seven years.

“BJP is anti-backward class, is enemy of backward class, the poor, the SC/ST. BJP has never done anything to help the disadvantaged sections, including backward classes. The credit that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is trying to seek on Twitter is actually deliberate falsehood. Untruth and lie are being perpetuated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” he said

Mr. Surjewala said that reservation for OBCs was 2% in 1952 and increased to 10% in 1980-81. Then, Congress implemented the Mandal Commission Report. In 1995-96, the reservation for BCs and OBCs went up.

“Congress gave reservation to Scheduled Castes and Tribes in the Constitution itself and subsequently raised the quantum for OBCs to 27%. But, this reservation was not applied to MBBS and BDS seats. In 2007, Dr. Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi ensured that Congress government passed a law in Parliament for compulsory reservation for backward classes in all Central government institutions, and it was implemented,” he explained.

Though Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power in 2014, for seven years he did not implement the reservation in State institutions. Displaying a copy of the letter written by Congress president Sonia Gandhi to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on July 3, 2020, Mr. Surjewala said that she had requested implementation of the constitutional mandate of reservation in national quota for OBC students, to which the Prime Minister never replied.

Subsequently, one student approached the Madras High Court, which on July 27, 2020 said that ‘you should not deny students their right’.

“The court said we are issuing certain directions as we find that the entire constitutional obligation to take a decision by the Central government is evidently a necessity. However, when despite the court’s direction, Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not implement the reservation, Congress and DMK filed a contempt petition. In its order on July 21, the Madras High Court gave seven days to the Union government to implement the reservation and also that admissions could be done only after implementing the reservation.”

Mr. Surjewala said that in fear of going to jail, the Centre implemented the reservation.

“This is the double speak and duplicity of the BJP. I want to tell all the children from backward classes, deprived classes, the Prime Minister, who claims to be from a backward class, denied you reservation for seven years, reservation that was given by a Central Act in 2007 for all Central educational institutions by the Congress party and should also have been given in States. Finally, he had to give reservation because of threat of contempt,” he said

‘Death of policemen due to failure of Home Minister’

Mr. Surjewala blamed Union Home Minister Amit Shah, the NDA government and the Chief Ministers of Assam and Mizoram for the violence on the border of the States in which police personnel were killed.

“There is a BJP-NDA government at Mizoram, Assam and at the Centre. The Union Home Minister had gone there 10 days ago. He is aware of the situation. Why is he making the police of both the States fire at each other? Have you ever heard anything of this sort in 73 years of independent India, that the police, civilians and MPs of two States are firing upon each other? Should we be fighting our enemies or should we be fighting our own brothers and sisters? This is the difference between a UPA government and NDA government at the Centre,” he said.

“No Home Minister of the country would have failed as miserably as Mr. Amit Shah. All that he is busy in is snooping and spying,” he said.

On the COVID-19 cases in Kerala, Mr. Surjewala said that the P. Vijayan government should stop being in denial mode and put up a united fight against the pandemic instead of endangering the lives of people.

On AICC’s new chief, Mr. Surjewala said that millions of Congress leaders and workers want Rahul Gandhi back as AICC chief. Because of COVID-19, internal elections had been deferred. Once the situation improves, internal elections would be announced to elect the new chief, he said.