RSS slams quota politics

Instead of benefiting different castes, reservations now are becoming a weapon to divide society to satisfy greed for power," Sangh mouthpiece Panchjanya said.

As Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhra Raje's pre-election reservation promise to Gurjars backfired on the BJP, the RSS has flayed the quota system for Dalits, calling it a technique to divide society for power.

HT Image

"Instead of benefiting different castes, reservations now are becoming a weapon to divide society to satisfy greed for power," a page-one article in Sangh mouthpiece Panchjanya said.

It followed a write-up in another RSS organ, Organiser, which blamed the caste rioting in Rajasthan on the state police while seeking to bail out the chief minister from fierce criticism she had been facing for her handling of the crisis.

The Panchjanya article clearly endorsed senior BJP leader LK Advani's call for an all-party meeting to discuss ways to bring order back to Rajasthan, where trouble broke out over Raje's pre-poll promise that she would take steps to ensure classification of Gurjars as a scheduled tribe.

"Nobody bothered to call an all-party meeting to defuse the agitation immediately," it said. "Both ruling and opposition parties are busy in their own politics."

The Sangh piece named no BJP leader while criticising politics in general over reservations, but it did slam former prime minister VP Singh for Mandal.

"Every Indian has the right to have an opportunity to move ahead in education and profession without discrimination," it said.

Politicians, the article alleged, were concerned only about votes.

It praised Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati for her successful social engin.