The BJP will never take away reservation given to SC and ST communities, neither will it tolerate any attempt by others to do away with reservation policy, said BJP president Amit Shah in Mumbai on Friday. Shah was addressing a massive rally of BJP workers on the occasion of BJP foundation day.
He targeted Congress president Rahul Gandhi and said the Congress chief was asking Modi government to explain what it did in the last four years. "He should first explain what his family's four generations did when they ruled India. These days, he is getting close to Sharad Pawarji. Pawarji tells him something and then he talks.”
Shah claimed that Modi government is for pro-farmer, pro-poor, pro-rural development. The decisions like insurance cover of Rs 5 lakh, crores of gas cylinders distributed to people, toilets constructed, and electricity connections given to villages are evidence that the government is pro-poor, he added.
Replying to a query on Achche Din, Shah said critics of Achche Din should go and ask people who have benefited because of gas cylinders, toilets and electricity. "For these beneficiaries, Achche Din have come."
Shah also stressed that the BJP wanted Shiv Sena to be its ally even in 2019. "They are with us in the government. I will not say anything more," he said, while responding to a query on Shiv Sena's criticism of the governments at the Centre and in the state.
When asked about RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat's recent statement that 'Congress Mukt Bharat' was not RSS terminology, Shah said Bhagwat had said it because RSS was not a political organisation. " Even when we talk about 'Congress Mukt Bharat' we mean it in the sense of India being free of Congress culture. We don't mean it literally, we don't mean India free of Congress as a political organisation," Shah clarified.
The BJP chief further said an attempt was being made to incite dalits and create tension in the country. Our opposition tells dalits that we will get rid of reservation. "Our activists will visit 20,000 villages to counter this false propaganda. We will not take away reservation, neither will we allow anyone else to do it," he said.