Minister draws flak for casteist quip

LUCKNOW :Fisheries minister Jai Prakash Nishad’s purported remark about the role of other backward classes in the freedom struggle has come in for criticism from some quarters here.

Nishad said: “While the British were ruling and tormenting Indians, it was people from OBCs who took on the foreigners.

The OBCs drowned more than 100 foreigners in the Ganga and that is enough to showcase their valour.” He was speaking at one of the felicitation functions that the BJP organised for students of backward classes in various parts of the state. Some questioned if it was right to make a casteist reference to the freedom struggle.

“I guess all Indians participated in the freedom struggle irrespective of caste, creed or religion. I am sure OBCs will have participated in the freedom movement just as Brahmins, Dalits, Muslims and Christians did. But is it necessary to draw a casteist reference to a movement that saw Indians unitedly taking on the British,” asked Athar Siddiqui from the Centre of Objective Research and Development.

The other ministers who participated in these felicitation functions included Swami Prasad Maurya (Mainpuri), Anupama Jaiswal (Lucknow), Swati Singh (Shravasti), besides others.

The BJP has also decided to felicitate meritorious Dalit students in each districts as part of a campaign to bond with Dalits and OBCs, the two influential caste groups that had voted for the BJP both in 2014 Lok Sabha polls and then in 2017 UP assembly elections.

I am sure OBCs will have participated in the freedom struggle just as Brahmins, Dalits, Muslims & Christians did JAI PRAKASH NISHAD, Fisheries minister