BHOPAL: AICC general secretary Mukul Wasnik on Monday said that the Congress party will fight every battle, even a protracted war, to ensure that right to reservation in appointments is not denied to SCs and STs. After hearing a writ petition by Uttarakhand government, a two-judges bench of the Supreme Court on February 7 ruled that states are not bound to provide reservations in government jobs to SCs and STs. Congress claimed that the Supreme Court verdict is unfortunate. Mukul Wasnik said that the Uttarakhand government’s plea is a “conspiracy of the BJP-RSS combine and exposes their casteist mentality.”Wasnik recalled that five years ago, RSS chief Dr Mohan Bhagwat had said that there is a need to review the reservations policy. “From his statement it is clear that RSS chief disagrees with the existing reservation system,” Mukul Wasnik said. “RSS leader Manmohan Vaidya had also said that caste-based reservations for a long time will polarize and divide the country.”The Congress leader added that Prime Minister Narendra Modi ’s book titled Karmayogi claimed that Dalits do menial work voluntarily. “BJP-RSS combine do not want to recognise tribals as `adivasis’ or the original inhabitants of the soil. They call then ‘vanvasis’, thereby not giving them their rightful identity,” Wasnik said.A Congress release said, “A sinister conspiracy has been hatched by BJP-Modi government-Uttarakhand BJP government to attack the Constitution and abrogate the right of reservation in government jobs for SC/ST/OBCs.” It argued that the Uttarakhand government plea said there is no fundamental right of reservation in government jobs doe SC/STs and there is no constitutional duty on the governments to grant the reservations.Congress also claimed that the Narendra Modi Centre is “misleading the entire nation and Parliament”. Congress argued there is no connection between the erstwhile Congress government in Uttarakhand and the anti-reservation plea. “The former Congress government of Uttarakhand never filed an appeal or Special Leave Petition (SLP) in the Supreme Court regarding reservation. The decision dated 7th February, 2020 of the Apex Court is based on the SLP filed by Uttarakhand BJP government dated 9th November 2019,” the Congress said.