Amid the spotlight on OBC and Dalit issues ahead of UP polls and growing clamour of some parties for caste census, RSS on Tuesday voiced its strong backing for reservation saying this "tool of affirmative action" should continue as long as a particular section of the society experiences inequality.
At an event organised by the India Foundation for the launch of a book "Makers Of Modern Dalit History", RSS general secretary Dattatreya Hosabale said Sangh is a strong supporters of reservation, a pitch RSS has made from time to time whenever the Opposition parties in past attacked RSS and BJP over its committment to reservation issue.
"History of India is not different from History from Dalits. Without their history, India's history is incomplete," Hosabale said, a comment that came at a time when the Congress has mounted an offensive on the BJP highlighting incidents of Dalit atrocities in Delhi (where the police are under Centre's Home Ministry headed by Amit Shah) and Uttar Pradesh ruled BJP's Yogi Adityanath.
Congress SC department is organising a "Halla Bol” protest on August 12 in the national capital.
"When we discuss the various aspects of SC and ST sections of society, invariably certain aspects come to fore such as reservation. My organisation and I are strong supporters of reservations for decades. When there were anti-reservation protests in many campuses, we passed a resolution and organised a seminar in Patna in support of reservation," Hosabale said.
He also said, "social harmony and social justice are not political strategies for us and both of these are articles of faith for us...Reservation is a historical necessity for India. It should continue as long as there is inequality being experienced by a particular section of society."
This is not the first time that RSS has reiterated its commitment to reservation. In August 2019 when RSS chief Mohan Bhagwats' remarks calling for a conversation on reservation kicked up a political storm, RSS Publicity Head Arun Kumar had issued a statement saying that RSS has time and again made it clear that it "full supports" reservation for SC/ST/OBC as well as those getting quota on economic grounds.
The controversy had kicked up then ahead of polls in three BJP-ruled states Maharashtra, Haryana and Jharkhand. Way back in 2015 during Bihar polls when Nitish Kumar was leading an Opposition alliance against the BJP, Bhagwat's remarks calling for a "review" of reservation had become a major poll issue and the RJD-Congress-JDU alliance had then tried to paint the BJP as anti-reservation. RSS was quick to assert its commitment to the quota issue.
BJP and RSS have repeatedly attempted to douse such controversies with unequivocal assertions of their support to the quota issue with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, himself assuring that nobody can do away with reservation saying "till Modi is here, nobody can touch the reservations, given to us by Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar."
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