LUCKNOW: BSP chief Mayawati on Sunday said the Congress, which won Lok Sabha seats by promising to protect reservation, seems to be in favour of sub-classification within SCs and STs and is yet to raise its voice against the issue of exclusion of the creamy layer in these communities from the benefits of quota.
On August 1, the Supreme Court held that states are constitutionally empowered to make sub-classifications within scheduled castes and scheduled tribes, and batted for the creamy layer be excluded from reservation.
“The national president of the Congress (Mallikarjun Kharge) said before disclosing the party's stand on sub-classification of SCs and STs, his party will consult NGOs and lawyers and others. This makes it clear that Congress is in favour of sub-classification,” Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati said in a series of posts on X in Hindi.
“The Congress has spoken in a vague manner about the creamy layer issue. Despite it having 99 MPs, no voice was raised in Parliament till the adjournment to nullify the Supreme Court's decision, whereas this party has won these seats in the name of saving the Constitution and reservation,” she said.
Mayawati also said after the BSP's press conference on Saturday, “we got to know about the statement given by the Congress president, in which the credit for reservation has been given not to Baba Saheb Dr. Bhimrao ambedkar but to Pandit Nehru and Gandhiji, in which there is not even an iota of truth”.
