NDA parties slam Congress over reservations, caste-based survey

Leaders from the Janata Dal (United), or JD(U), Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), and the Shiv Sena — partners in the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) — tore into the opposition Congress-led INDIA bloc during a discussion on 75 years of the Constitution in the Rajya Sabha on Monday.

JD(U) MP Sanjay Jha said that leaders of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) bloc talk about caste census, however, it was the Nitish Kumar-led government that conducted a caste-based enumeration in Bihar.

“I was present in the INDIA bloc meeting in Mumbai when Nitish Kumar ji said caste census should be brought… The leader of TMC (Mamata Banerjee) was opposed to the idea…Congress people remained silent and did not say anything,” Jha said in the Upper House.

The JD(U) lawmaker also reminded the Congress about the 1989 Bhagalpur riots in Bihar in which nearly 1,000 people died. “However, the victims’ families had to wait for 15 years to receive a compensation,” he added.

Shiv Sena member Milind Deora, while listing out the Modi government’s achievements, including abrogation of Article 370 which gave special status to the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), took a veiled swipe at the Congress, alleging the party lacked “internal democracy”.

“If today any political party cannot bring democracy within itself, then how will it strengthen the Constitution and democracy in India,” Deora said. “Some parties today very vociferously voice their opinion on market monopolies, but still they haven’t been able counter monopolies within their party…But I urge parties, those who know who I am taking about and have a guilty conscience, please introspect and please try to democratise.”

NCP’s Praful Patel also took a dig at the Congress, saying the principal opposition party keeps repeating the same old slogan that they brought Independence to the country. “Independence was not brought by one person, rather Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Birsa Munda among others got the Independence…”

He said the Congress talks about caste-based census, but it did not implement the recommendations of the Mandal Commission — Socially and Economically Backward Classes Commission — something that was eventually done by the VP Singh government.