Referring to caste-based reservation as an instrument of affirmative action that has an important role to play in social justice and equality, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) general secretary Dattatreya Hosabale on Tuesday said that reservation and reconciliation (between communities) have to go hand in hand.
He also said that the political, cultural, social and spiritual history of India will be incomplete and untrue without the contribution of Dalits.
Speaking at the launch of a book, Makers of Modern Dalit History, authored by Guru Prakash Paswan and Sudarshan Ramabadran, Hosabale asserted that he and his organisation were staunch supporters of caste-based reservation.
“I have been a staunch supporter of reservation…In western countries, in Europe and in America, there has been an effort for reconciliation on the part of the African Blacks. Reservation and reconciliation both have to go hand-in-hand,” he said. He later argued that while reservation was a historic necessity, reconciliation was for the future.
While the opponents of the Sangh have accused it of opposing caste-based reservation that allows quotas for Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) communities in government jobs and education institutions; Hosabale reiterated that the RSS has been at the forefront of denouncing casteism.
“When we discuss the various aspects of Dalit community and the Scheduled Tribe sections of the society, invariably certain aspects come to the fore; one of them is reservation. My organisation and I have been staunch supporters of reservation since decades. In 1980, when there was an anti-reservation movement on some campuses, we passed a resolution [in its favour] and organised a seminar in Patna. Time and again we have said [that] reservation is a historic necessity for the country for many more decades, as long as there is any inequality being experienced by [a] particular section or segment of the society,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}“When we discuss the various aspects of Dalit community and the Scheduled Tribe sections of the society, invariably certain aspects come to the fore; one of them is reservation. My organisation and I have been staunch supporters of reservation since decades. In 1980, when there was an anti-reservation movement on some campuses, we passed a resolution [in its favour] and organised a seminar in Patna. Time and again we have said [that] reservation is a historic necessity for the country for many more decades, as long as there is any inequality being experienced by [a] particular section or segment of the society,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}On the issue of identities within the Dalit communities, he said he has observed that it was emerging, but it was too early to say whether it was good or bad for society. “I stay in Uttar Pradesh and travel across the country, and I meet a lot of people across sections. I have felt an experience … identity is not limited to Dalit itself; within Dalits the question of identities is being deliberately raised by intellectuals. I am not saying whether I am for it or against it, I am only making an observation. It is too early to say whether such a development is good for the society or not,” he said.
The RSS functionary went on to say that social harmony and social justice were not political strategies but articles of faith for the Sangh.
The RSS, which is the ideological fount of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, has been running samajik samarasta or social harmony campaigns to end discrimination on the basis of caste. The campaign had become the genesis for the BJP’s social engineering strategy which aims to expand its base among the other backward castes that have been socially and economically deprived by giving them political representation.