LUCKNOW: Hailing the Supreme Court order on reservation in government job promotions to people belonging to the SC/ST communities, BSP chief Mayawati has asked the government to run a special campaign under which Dalits can avail of the benefits of reservation.
However, the BSP chief, in no uncertain terms, accused both the BJP and the previous Congress regimes of having failed to shed their casteist mindset, even after the SC order, according to which, Mayawati said, the government could legally give reservation to Dalits in promotions.
This was the reason, she claimed, that despite almost unanimous support for the constitutional amendment, it had not been lingering in the lower house of parliament for the last so many years.
A day after the court order, Mayawati also asked the Centre to assess all its past decisions and rectify the wrongs committed against persons from SC/ST communities.
“The Supreme Court has always held that reservation for SC/ST in promotions constitutional. But the hurdles created in implementing this rule have made it ineffective. Despite Rajya Sabha passed a
constitutional amendment in this regard after a lot of effort, it was pending even after four years in the lower house,” she said adding that it had affected the professional prospects of several workers from the SC/ST communities.
“The BJP governments at the Centre and state are using Dalits for vote bank politics. They show fake sympathy for them but have actually done nothing for them. Their constitutional rights are being
impinged upon and an environment has been created where they are not being allowed to work,” she said.