Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaks in the Rajya Sabha during the Budget session of Parliament, in New Delhi, Wednesday, Feb 7, 2024.
Credit: PTI File Photo
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday blamed Jawaharlal Nehru for not providing job reservation for people belonging to the Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe and Other Backward Caste, arguing that India’s first Prime Minister was against job reservation in the government sector.
Quoting a letter written by Nehru to then Chief Ministers, Modi said the veteran leader was against such a practice, fearing a dip in the quality of government jobs. Had they (SCs/STs/OBCs) been provided government jobs then, their standards would have been lifted by now, he said in the Rajya Sabha, responding to the Motion of Thanks.
The Prime Minister’s counter comes at a time when Congress and other opposition parties have been attacking the BJP-government for not doing enough for the upliftment of the poor and marginalised.
The Prime Minister said, “This is a letter written by Nehru to states. It shows that Congress has always been against reservation. Nehruji used to say that if SCs/STs/OBCs get quotas in jobs, then the standard of government work will fall.”
"Congress is citing numbers about OBC representation, but the real reason they are doing this is because of the foundation laid by its own founders. Had Congress empowered backward castes back then, the situation would have been different today," he added.
Modi cited the examples of Jammu and Kashmir where SCs/STs/OBCs got their rights only after the revocation of Article 370 that gave a special status to the northern state, and former Congress president Sitaram Kesri, an OBC leader who was unceremoniously removed as Congress president in the 1990s.