Kurukshetra:

Prime Minister Narendra Modi lashed out at the Congress on Saturday, alleging that the “royal family” of the opposition party wants to do away with the reservation for Dalits and asserting that as long as he is there, he will not allow a fraction of the quota given by B R Ambedkar to be looted or removed. The prime minister said this while addressing his first rally in Haryana in the run-up to the October 5 state Assembly polls.

Addressing the rally in Kurukshetra district, PM Modi recalled certain incidents that took place when the Congress was in power in the state and asked the gathering, “Who knows the anti-Dalit face of the Congress better than Haryana?”

He accused the Gandhi family of being the “biggest anti-Dalit, anti-OBC and anti-tribal” force in the country.

“They have now said if they come to power, they will end the reservation for Dalits and the downtrodden. This is the truth of this family,” PM Modi said.

The Gandhi family always “hated” BR Ambedkar and was strongly opposed to reservation, he alleged.

The family had “insulted” Dalits, Other Backward Classes (OBC) and tribals, the prime minister alleged further.

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been attacking the Congress, saying Rahul Gandhi is against reservation for the Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes and OBC, and his prejudice against the provision came out in the open during his recent interaction with the students of Georgetown University in the United States.

The BJP’s accusation came after Mr Gandhi told the students at the prestigious university that the Congress would think of scrapping reservations when “India is a fair place”, which he said is not the case right now.

Taking on the country’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, PM Modi claimed that he too had opposed reservation.

“He had written to the chief ministers of the states in this regard. There is proof of this. Nehruji had said if people get jobs due to reservation, the quality of government service will drop. These were the words of Nehruji,” he said.

Jawaharlal Nehru put the Kakasaheb Kalekar Commission’s report on the OBC reservation on the back burner, he claimed, adding that Jawaharlal Nehru’s daughter, former prime minister Indira Gandhi, had also stalled the OBC reservation.

The Mandal Commission was formed under the Janata Party government but when the Congress returned to power, it put the commission’s report on the back burner, he claimed.

“Rajivji (former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi) also did not let the OBC get reservation,” he said.

Then Mandal Commission report was implemented during the V P Singh government, which was supported by the BJP, PM Modi said.

“As the opposition leader in Parliament, Rajiv Gandhi had opposed the reservation. In an interview, he had dubbed those who got reservations as ‘buddhu’,” he claimed.

There could not be a bigger insult to the SC, ST and OBC communities than this, the prime minister said.

“Now, the royal family of the Congress is again insisting on doing away with reservation. But the Congress should listen to me carefully. As long as PM Modi is here, I will not allow a fraction of the reservation given by Baba Saheb Ambedkar to be looted or removed.

“The SC, ST and OBC reservations will stay. This is Modi’s guarantee and we will fight for it,” he said.

No one knows the anti-Dalit face of the Congress better than the people of Haryana, the prime minister said, adding that whenever the grand old party formed its government in the state, it became difficult for Dalits to live.

Referring to a 2005 incident in Gohana, he said, “Can any Dalit family forget it? In 2010, there was the Mirchpur incident. In 2012, the Bhagana incident and in 2014, what happened to daughters of Dalits? The soul shivers when someone recalls that shameful incident.” The then chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and the “royal family” of the Congress kept mum at that time, PM Modi said.

The Dalit community needs to remain alert of the Congress, he added.

In the Gohana incident, a few Dalit houses were set ablaze by some people after a man from the community was suspected of being involved in the killing of an upper-caste person.

In the Mirchpur incident, on April 21, 2010, a group of villagers belonging to an upper caste allegedly torched more than a dozen Dalit houses, killing a teenage girl and her aged father.

PM Modi asked the Congress to take care of its “androoni Mahabharat” (infighting).

“The way the Congress is doing its politics in Haryana by putting one family forward, the entire Dalit Samaj is watching it,” he said, apparently referring to the Hooda family this time.

The prime minister asserted that the BJP government is committed towards the development of Haryana.

“During the previous Congress regime, corruption had become a ritual in Haryana,” he alleged.

Youngsters suffered because of this as they could not get jobs without “kharchi-parchi (favouritism, corruption)”, PM Modi said.

He said the BJP government ended this “game of kharchi-parchi”.

The government gave 1.5 lakh jobs in a transparent manner, PM Modi said.

He said Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini is going to give 25,000 jobs to youngsters but the Congress “Bharti roko gang” is creating impediments to it.

The BJP forming its government in Haryana for a third straight time means “sabka vikas, tez vikas (fast development for all)”, the prime minister said.

The 90-member Haryana Assembly is scheduled to go to polls on October 5 and the counting of votes will be taken up on October 8.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

Pointing out a “glaring instance” of politics destroying an extremely significant piece of intelligence shared between two nations, a security expert on Thursday said that Israel had shared with India certain transcripts about the possible threat to the life of late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi that went missing after the assassination of the top Congress leader in 1991.

“In recent history, in the last three-four decades, the most critical information Israel shared with us was certain transcripts relating to possible threat to late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s life. Eventually, as the situation played out, the threat materialised… Once he was no more, the political dispensations were very different.

“Nations had to work with each other on a day-to-day basis. The situation arose where that particular piece of intelligence got misplaced, removed, or whatever,” said Namit Verma during a discussion titled ‘Intelligence Cooperation and Security Challenges in the Emerging World Order’ organised by the Usanas Foundation.

Mr Verma, according to the programme’s host and Usanas founder Abhinav Pandya, has been an “expert on global geopolitics with specialisation in security matters” for decades, having also “worked closely with the government on various critical matters of security and foreign policy”.

“In India, we reconstructed the material based on the correspondence with other files. We sought another copy of the transcript, but Israel never provided it. There can’t be a more glaring instance of how politics plays out in sharing intelligence between nations.

“At that point, India was critical, the Soviet Union wasn’t disintegrated and India was a backchannel between the US and the Soviets. Rajiv Gandhi was part of that communication,” he mentioned during the discussion which was also attended by two Israeli security experts, Joseph Rozen and Kobe Michael, the latter having served as Deputy Director General and head of the Palestinian division in the Israeli Ministry of Strategic Affairs.

Mr Verma said that such incidents have happened whenever global equations are changing or the existing order is challenged.

“This particular transcript effectively said that the payment had been made… It said that ‘Godman’ has made the payment… What could be more obvious… On the backchannel, all this information was documented and our intelligence agencies were aware of that. They asked for security to be provided which the government of the day did not provide,” the expert told the virtual gathering.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

Striking an emotive note, former Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday remembered her “life partner” Rajiv Gandhi while speaking on the women’s reservation bill and said his dream would be fulfilled with the passage of this legislation.

Extending her party’s support to the women’s reservation bill, the Congress parliamentary party chief demanded that the quota be implemented immediately and SC, ST and OBC women also be given reservation following a caste census.

While putting forward strong political points on the bill, she also injected a personal note when she recalled former prime minister and her husband Rajiv Gandhi’s efforts to secure reservation for women.

“This is a very poignant moment in my life. It was my life partner Rajiv Gandhi ji who for the first time had brought the constitutional amendment for participation of women in local bodies, but it was defeated in the Rajya Sabha by seven votes. Later, the Congress government under the leadership of prime minister P V Narasimha Rao got it passed,” she said in the Lok Sabha.

Today, as a result of that, there are 15 lakh elected women leaders through local bodies across the country, she added.

“Rajiv Gandhi’s dream is only half fulfilled. It will be fulfilled with the passage of this bill. The Congress supports this bill,” Mrs Gandhi said.

The constitutional amendment bill was introduced in the Lower House on Tuesday. It was the first bill introduced in the new Parliament building.

The bill provides for 33 per cent reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies. The reservation will come into effect only after the completion of the census and delimitation exercise.

Rajiv Gandhi first introduced Constitution Amendment Bills for one-third reservation in panchayats and nagarpalikas in May 1989. It was passed in the Lok Sabha but failed in the Rajya Sabha in September 1989.

Later, then prime minister Narasimha Rao reintroduced Constitution Amendment Bills for one-third reservation for women in panchayats and nagarpalikas in April 1993. Both bills were passed and became laws. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)