Congress conspired against reservation: Anurag Thakur in Parliament

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP and former Union minister Anurag Thakur on Thursday accused the Congress of having “conspired” against reservation for backward classes and Dalits.

Thakur, who represents Hamirpur Lok Sabha constituency in Himachal Pradesh, stoked a controversy on Tuesday while taking a dig at the Opposition for demanding a caste census. Without naming anyone, Thakur had said in the Lok Sabha, “Those whose caste is not known are talking about census…”

The statement evoked a sharp response from leader of the opposition and Congress MP Rahul Gandhi, who rose from his seat and said, “You can insult me as much as you want, but you should not forget that we will get the caste census bill passed in Parliament.”

With the opposition doubling down on the BJP and its leaders for stoking the caste issue, Thakur defended his speech on Thursday.

“My speech deeply hurt the sense of entitlement of some people, as a result of which the entire ecosystem of Congress is creating hue and cry. They feel only they have the right to ask questions because they are privileged… These are the same people whose ancestors used to call the backward, Dalits and deprived as buddhus (fools). Those who used to call others fools, today their own houses are full of fools,” he said during a Parliament debate.

Opposition parties have cornered the government on the issue of caste census and, during the Lok Sabha polls earlier this year, alleged that the BJP had set its sights on winning 400 plus seats because it intended to scrap caste-based quotas. The allegation was refuted by the BJP, but party leaders attribute its tally shrinking from 303 in 2019 to 240 this year largely to the fear that the BJP will end reservation.

In a bid to turn the tables on the Congress, Thakur said Congress leaders used to make excuses for not giving the right of equality to Dalits and tribals. “These are the same people who used to wonder how a Dalit person can stand in front of them wearing a suit and draft the Constitution… The then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi had publicly referred to people from backward castes as ‘fools’,” he said.

Citing an old media report, dated March 1985, Thakur said former PM Gandhi had in an interview said he will “not promote fools in the name of reservation”.

“Will the Congress publicly condemn a very disgusting casteist statement made by Rajiv Gandhi? Will any resolution be passed against that statement?” he said.

Thakur further said former PM and Congress leader Indira Gandhi did not implement the Mandal Commission report and the Kaka Kalekar report that suggested measures for caste-wise enumeration of the population in the 1961 Census, and the Congress also suppressed reservation in all technical and professional institutions.