BJP will not remove reservations, nor will it allow Congress to do so: Amit Shah

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday said the Bharatiya Janata Party will never do away with reservations for Scheduled Tribes, Scheduled Castes and Other Backward Class, nor will it allow the Congress to do so. Congress’ tactic was to lie repeatedly, he alleged, and advised its president Mallikarjun Kharge not to speak lies for the sake of the “family” (referring to Nehru-Gandhi family) as eventually he would be blamed for its loss in the Lok Sabha elections.

Speaking at a rally at Katghora town in Chhattisgarh in support of Saroj Pandey, the BJP candidate from the Korba constituency, Shah accused Congress of nurturing terrorism and Naxalism to win elections. “Congress has one formula — speak lies loudly, publicly and keep repeating them. They say if (prime minister Narendra) Modi gets majority for the third term, he will scrap reservations. They circulated my fake video. We have been in power for ten years, Modi did not remove reservations, nor will he ever do it,” the BJP leader said.

The PM used his majority in Parliament to scrap Article 370 and ban triple talaq, construct the Ram temple in Ayodhya and introduce the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, he said. “I have come to give you Modi’s guarantee that as long as there is even one BJP MP in Parliament, we will neither remove the reservation for STs, SCs and OBCs, nor will we allow the Congress party to do so,” the Union minister added.

Targeting Congress president Kharge over his statement at a rally in Janjgir-Champa on Tuesday, Shah said, “Kharge ji says, if Modi comes to power, the poor will be destroyed. I want to ask Kharge ji, didn’t 25 crore poor people benefit when they were brought out of poverty? Isn’t giving ration to 80 crore poor people beneficial for the poor?

Didn’t the poor benefit due to the construction of 12 crore toilets, giving of gas cylinders to our mothers, providing tap water in their homes and treating seven crore people (through health insurance)?” Why the Congress president was lying for the family, he further said. “Kharge ji, you do not know that they do not care for anyone…..As Congress suffers a defeat on June 4 (when results of the Lok Sabha elections will be announced), the brother-sister duo will remain safe, but the 80-year-old Kharge ji will be blamed,” Shah said, in apparent swipe at Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. If Modi gets another term as prime minister, Naxalism will be uprooted from Chhattisgarh in two years, the home minister vowed.

Accusing the previous Bhupesh Baghel-led Congress government in the state of encouraging Naxalism, he said after the BJP came to power under the leadership of Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai and Deputy CM Vijay Sharma (who holds Home portfolio), 95 Naxalites were eliminated in four months, 350 others arrested and many surrendered. PM Modi eliminated Naxalism from Jharkhand, Bihar, Odisha, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra in five years, but it survived in Chhattisgarh as the Baghel-led government was in power, Shah claimed.

“Our brave security forces killed 29 Naxalites recently and yesterday killed another ten Naxalites. But Bhupesh Kakka (as Baghel is called) terms it a fake encounter despite Naxalites having accepted that they suffered a huge loss. Congress people are not ashamed. Congress has been nurturing terrorism and Naxalism in this country for years to win elections,” the Union minister alleged.

Congress leaders rejected invitations for the Ram Mandir consecration ceremony in Ayodhya because they feared they would lose their vote bank, Shah said. “The invitation was sent to Congress leader Sonia ji, Rahul Baba and Kharge ji…but they declined it because they feared for vote bank. Vote banks are important to them,” he said. Modi has brought about a huge transformation in the country in the last ten years, and has an agenda for 25 years, the BJP leader said. Rahul Gandhi tried to discourage people from taking anti-coronavirus vaccines during the COVID-19 pandemic, Shah alleged. “Did you (people of Korba) have to pay for vaccine? Modi ji protected the country from coronavirus by administering vaccine to the people. At that time, Rahul Baba used to say don’t get vaccinated as it is ‘Modi vaccine’. It is good that you do not listen to him. You took the vaccine….Then one night, in the dark, he and his sister went and got vaccinated. Rahul Baba, you should be ashamed as you did politics over a pandemic,” Shah said. Modi has “hit a century” in the first two phases of the general elections and the BJP will head towards 400-plus seats in the third phase, he said. Korba will go to polls on May 7.