NewzVille Desk
The Congress party demanded immediate implementation of 27 percent reservations for the OBCs in Madhya Pradesh as it has been categorically cleared by the Supreme Court of India. Senior party leaders including former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, Congress in-charge for Madhya Pradesh Harish Chaudhary, MP PCC president Jitu Patwari and the Chairman of AICC OBC Department Anil JaiHind were addressing a press conference today in New Delhi.
They alleged that the BJP was revealing its anti-reservation and anti-backward class mindset by deliberately delaying the reservation benefits to the OBCs.
Harish Chaudhary stated that it was the Congress government, which originally provided 14 percent reservation to the OBCs in 1994. Later, in 2003, again it was the Congress government, which raised the quota to 27 percent. However, after the elections, BJP government was formed and it never implemented the decision.
He said, after 16 years, when the Congress government was formed in 2019 under the leadership of Kamal Nath, it brought an ordinance to provide 27 percent reservation for OBCs. However, the BJP challenged it in court, which then directed that a law be enacted on the matter. We subsequently got the bill passed in the Assembly. He said, as the BJP formed the government again, it did not implement the OBC reservation bill.
Chaudhary said that the pleas against the 27 percent reservations were dismissed by the High Court and the BJP government approached the Supreme Court. He said, the Supreme Court also upheld it, and issued a notice on June 25 to MP govt asking why the benefit of 27% reservations for OBCs is not being implemented.
Accusing the BJP of the anti-reservation mindset, Bhupesh Baghel disclosed that the Congress government in Chhattisgarh had unanimously passed a law in December 2022 for providing 27 percent reservation to the OBCs. But the bill is still to get the nod of the Governor. He said, this is because the BJP does not want to provide 27 percent reservations to the OBCs.
Jitu Patwari said that it was strange that Prime Minister Modi claims himself to be an OBC and yet he was not providing the OBC community its rightful due. He said, the OBC Chief Ministers of MP belonging to the BJP like Uma Bharti, Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Mohan Yadav, have all betrayed their own community.
Anil JaiHind maintained that the BJP and the RSS have always been against the reservation. Citing an example, he said, the law on reservation for Dalits, OBCs and Adivasis in private educational institutions has been deliberately delayed by the BJP government since 2014.
