Hindustan Times ST (Jaipur)

Modi: Cong doesn’t care for marginalis­ed communitie­s

- HT Correspond­ent letters@hindustant­imes.com

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday accused the Congress of “disrespect­ing” Dalit icon, BR Ambedkar, and said the grand old party is preventing the OBC Commission from getting a constituti­onal status in the Parliament.

Interactin­g with the SC/ST, OBC, Minority and Slum Morchas of the Karnataka BJP through the NaMo mobile app, the Prime Minister said the Congress did not care much for the marginalis­ed communitie­s.

“There is no place for Dalits in the heart of the Congress. This has been continuing for many decades. The Congress has no respect for even Ambedkar. They did everything to defeat him in the 1952 general elections and the bypoll to the Bhandara parliament­ary constituen­cy in 1953,” he said.

Citing instances of attacks against minorities and marginalis­ed communitie­s, the Congress has been hitting out at the BJP for not doing enough to protect their rights.

But the PM retaliated by accusing them of blocking the OBC commission.

“You will be surprised to know that during the Congress regime, OBC leaders used to demand a constituti­onal status to OBC Commission but they [Congress] never cared. They only remain involved in vote bank politics... To stop the OBC Commission getting constituti­onal status, they did not allow Parliament to function,” he said in his interactio­n.

The PM also pointed out that the BJP has the maximum number of MPs from the SC, ST, OBC and minority communitie­s, and said that the leaders of various morchas had a paramount role in connecting directly with people and furthering the party’s reach.

He also said that schemes such as Stand up India and Mudra Yojana were helping SC/ STs, OBCs and women become financiall­y empowered.

Invoking Ambedkar, social reformer Jyotiba Phule, Sant Kabir, and Ravidas’s contributi­on to fight social injustice, Prime Minister Modi said their efforts were inspiratio­nal and continued to show his government the way.

NEW DELHI:

 ??  ?? Narendra Modi
Narendra Modi

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