MUMBAI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that people should not believe the opposition’s lies that "the BJP was against reservation" .

"This is something which Babasaheb Ambedkar has given us and no power can take it away," PM Modi said, likely implying that there will be no rethink on the reservation policy, like the opposition has been implying.

The Prime Minister 's statement on comes on the heels of RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat’s statements last month that the reservation policy needed to be reviewed. Bhagwat contended that quotas have been used for political ends and advocated an apolitical committee examine who needs quotas and for how long.

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"Every time when a BJP government is in power, a group of liars spreads the malicious propaganda that we are out to scrap reservations ... It happened during the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government's time as well… This rumour-mongering starts every time when elections are round the corner," PM Modi said at a public meeting in Bandra, after laying the foundation stone for two elevated Metro projects.

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"I have seen poverty. I have lived with it and there is a lot to be done for the uplift of the downtrodden of the society to whose betterment Babasheb was committed," he said.

The states with the most dalits, OBCs and adivasis have chosen the BJP government and this is an indicator “that we are the chosen one to uplift them” Modi said. “Unless they are given their due place in society, the country cannot progress," he added.

Earlier in the afternoon, the PM visited Indu Mill in Dadar where he laid the foundation stone for Ambedkar’s memorial and said that the architect of the constitution is an inspiration not just for the dalits but also for the world.

(With inputs from agencies)

