Union Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment Thaawarchand Gehlot is one of the most prominent Dalit faces of the Bharatiya Janata Party from Madhya Pradesh. He spoke to Sumi Sukanya Dutta on a range of issues that included the electoral advantage the BJP is likely to get following India’s airstrikes in Pakistan and the government’s welfare measures.
You are a member of the BJP’s manifesto committee. The Congress recently announced that right to health will be part of its manifesto. What promises will we see in the BJP’s manifesto to counter that? Also, how will your manifesto be different from 2014 with regard to the social sector?
For the first time the party has involved the common people in the making of the manifesto and their views are being sought through e-mails, letters and public meetings. The manifesto is now being finalised by the committee under Home Minister Rajnath Singh and there is a lot of emphasis on social security measures such as jobs, health and education.
As far as health is concerned, the Congress has been forced to talk about the right to health because the Narendra Modi government has launched the world’s biggest health scheme, the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana.
The programme is so good that even Congress-ruled states have adopted it and the states which have not gone for it are causing major disadvantage to their people. Budgetary allocation in all the sectors be it health, education, sanitation, women and child development or social justice, has gone up under this government. What were Congress governments doing during their reign at the Centre that they have to resort to defensive promises now?
The Congress has been terming the BJP as anti-Dalit. Many Dalit groups too were angry as there was a perception that the government was in favour of diluting the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. An Allahabad High Court order which ruled that quota in faculties in universities should be calculated department wise resulted in a major loss for reserved category candidates and the government kept delaying it until the last Union Cabinet meeting reversed the order.
The government duly respects the judicial system and we wanted to take the judicial route to restore the 200-point roster system in universities. The Centre first filed a special leave petition in the Supreme Court against the High Court order and it was rejected.
A review petition was later filed and that too was dismissed. Left with no choice, we had to bring an ordinance so that the candidates from reserved categories do not face any loss in appointments.
As far as the perceived dilution of the SC/ST act is concerned, we never wanted that. We want to make all parts of society participate in nation-building.
An additional category of 10 % reservation for the Economically Weaker Sections was introduced by your government, a move which the opposition said was aimed at appeasing core BJP voters from the upper castes. It was also said that the decision was being taken in haste What would you say to the critics?
When we were bringing in the policy we consulted representatives of Dalit and tribal communities too and they had absolutely no objection to it because their quota is not being tampered with. So this additional quota is a win-win situation for every class of society.
In fact, this recommendation was there in the Mandal Commission report and the PV Narasimha Rao government had even issued an order to implement it but they did not make an amendment in the Constitution because of which it was quashed by the SC.
Through the move, we did what should have done long ago. So if the Congress says anything against the decision it is just being jealous. As far as the preparedness for the move is concerned we started the process of implementation right after the law was passed.
In the assembly polls in four states in November 2018 the BJP lost three states to the Congress and the anger among the upper castes was cited as a major reason for the loss of your party. How do you think the dynamics will change in the Lok Sabha elections?
A lot has happened in the last four months. We brought in the EWS quota and carried out a successful airstrike on Pakistan in retaliation for the Pulwama attack. Our strike on Pakistan has created an atmosphere of nationalism in the country and only those who engage in anti-national activities are stressed.
The Congress has been giving shelter to the tukde-tukde gang which talks about things like Kashmir’s secession from India and mourns the hanging of Afzal Guru who attacked our Parliament. All such forces will be shown their place in the election and the Congress too will be punished for talking in such language.
We will definitely get an electoral advantage because of the strong and decisive moves by Modiji.
There is a buzz that many sitting MPs will not election ticket this time. Is that an admission that a number of parliamentarians have not performed?
Winnability is the only criterion that is taken into account while distributing tickets. A number of factors like caste, regional, local equations and other issues play a crucial role. So it’s wrong to say that if a sitting MP is dropped it’s because he or she has not performed. Only those who the party thinks can win, will get election tickets to contest.
Last year, a group of ministers under Rajnath Singh was formed to look into lynching deaths and assess whether a separate law is required for it and you too were a member in it. Many feel that the proceedings of the committee have been very slow.
I could not take part in any of the committee meetings so I cannot comment on what was discussed in it and what were the recommendations or deliberations.