Health Minister and BJP's National President JP Nadda on Tuesday fired back at Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi for his allegations that the Centre was not working for SC, ST, and OBCs. Nadda said that some people have become champions of OBCs, but they should not keep the copyright to themselves.
Rahul Gandhi, during his speech in the Lok Sabha on Monday, showed a poster of the traditional Halwa ceremony, held at the Ministry of Finance ahead of the Budget 2024. He said there was not one OBC, a tribal, or a Dalit officer in the picture. He suggested that the budget had nothing for common people and that the INDIA bloc would carry out a caste census to do justice to SC, ST, and OBCs.
Nadda reminded Gandhi that it was Congress that sat on the recommendations of the Kalelkar report and Mandal Commission - which recommended reservation for OBCs. "Since when have you become champions of OBCs? I ask, during whose time did the Kalelkar report come? I want to know during whose time the Mandal Commission report came. And where was it kept, in which cupboard was it gathering dust? And where was it discussed?" he said.
The Mandal Commission report, which recommended 27% reservation for OBCs, was submitted in 1980. However, the recommendations were implemented in 1990 by then-Prime Minister VP Singh.
The Health Minister said former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi had called the Mandal Commission report "one man's obstinance". "Further, he (Rajiv Gandhi) said that the Congress under the leadership of Indira Gandhi had raised the slogan - Na Jaat Par, Na Paat Par (neither on caste, nor on creed)."
"Now, for the sake of votes, you have started becoming champions of OBCs," Nadda said in an apparent attack on Raul Gandhi, who has promised to carry out caste census countrywide.
"How many OBCs are there in your Congress Working Committee? Tell me, how many OBCs, SCs, and STs are there on the board of your Rajiv Gandhi Foundation? During the UPA time, how many OBCs, SCs, and STs were there in the National Advisory Committee?" the minister asked.
The Rajiv Gandhi Foundation's Board has Sonia Gandhi as Chairperson, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as trustee, P Chidambaram, Suman Dubey, Ashok Ganguly, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, and Vijay Mahajan, according to information available on the foundations' site.
Nadda also attacked Congress for saying that some ideas in the Budget were lifted from its manifesto. He suggested that the Congress leaders were making contradictory statements on the Budget as on one hand they were saying the ideas were theirs and on the other hand they were saying the budget had nothing for common people.
"Some people are saying, 'this is an industrialists' budget, this is Congress' manifesto, it's copy-paste. And this budget is bad. What are you trying to say? It's copy-paste. So did you paste it - the industrialists' budget? Then you said it's bad. So it's your bad budget - what do you want to say?"
Speaking on the Agniveer scheme, Nadda said there should be no politics with national interest. He said the scheme was brought in after more than 400-500 meetings and consultations. "It has been made to make this Indian army alert, to make it the best army in the world," the minister said.