BJP President Amit Shah addressing the party workers meeting in Patna on Saturday. (Source: PTI Photo) BJP President Amit Shah addressing the party workers meeting in Patna on Saturday. (Source: PTI Photo)

With the NDA’s rivals repeatedly bringing up RSS Mohan Bhagwat’s comments on reservation, both the RSS and the BJP have reasserted that they believe the existing system should remain.

The RSS’s northeast region karyavah, Dr Mohan Singh, issued a statement Sunday saying that “the provisions for reservation should remain as they are for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, OBCs and EBCs as enshrined in the Constitution”. There should be no politics over reservation, it added.

On Monday, BJP president Amit Shah endorsed the RSS’s clarification and stressed the commitment of the BJP, too, to constitutional provisions. Shah had expressed such a stand earlier too. His reiteration comes ahead of the crucial third phase of the elections on October 28, and amid a growing view in both camps that the NDA might not have done as well in the first two phases as it had hoped.

“The RSS has made its stand clear on reservation after Mohan Bhagwat’s remarks,” Shah told reporters in Patna.

“The BJP too adheres to the existing provisions of reservation.”

He played down reports of the NDA not having doing well in the 81 seats — one-third of Bihar’s 243 — that went to polls in the first two phases. He predicted NDA victories in “22 to 34 of the 49 seats in the first phase, and 22 to 24 of the 32 seats” in the second. “Youth, women, farmers have rallied behind us. Development alone is the agenda of this election. We are trying to focus it on development but our rivals are trying to divert the discourse. The youth and the backward classes are solidly behind the NDA.”

The RSS statement had said: “Mohan Bhagwat’s views on the reservation policy have been presented after being distorted… an attempt has been made to create confusion about the RSS’s stand on reservation… The RSS condemns such efforts to distort Bhagwat’s views to mislead people and create confusion about its stand.”

Shah, meanwhile, hit out at the NDA’s rivals: “Pichhdon ki baat kar log pichhdon ka shoshan karte hain (while talking of safeguarding the interests of OBCs, they end up exploiting them). They should remember that much water has flown in the Ganges since 1990 (when Lalu had come to power invoking the pride of OBCs).”

Shah raised the threat of “jungle raj” returning and said the people of Bihar “are fearful of the thought”. Shah also attacked the grand alliance for contradictions among its constituents and for now coming on one platform against the BJP.

Asked about authors returning their awards, Shah said: “An incident happened in Congress-ruled Karnataka and protests have been taking place in Samajwadi Party-ruled UP. Law and order is a state subject.”

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