BENGALURU: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Tuesday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of spreading lies by stating that the architect of the Constitution, Dr B R Ambedkar, was against reservation based on religion.
He said several years back, the Maharashtra government had published Ambedkar’s speeches and writings and the Karnataka government had published the Kannada translations.
The PM must present before the people of the country if there is any mention of providing or not providing reservations based on religion in those speeches and writings, Siddaramaiah said.
The CM said the reservation given to Muslims was not based on religion, but was based on the social, economic and educational backwardness of people in the community. He said the decision to appoint non-Muslims to Wakf boards was taken with “communal hatred” and if the demand starts for using the same yardstick for Hindu temples and Mutts, it would result in unnecessary friction between the religions.
Siddaramaiah said the PM also made a false allegation that the state government snatched Dalit’s reservation and gave it to Muslims. In Karnataka, the reservation for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes has been increased, not decreased, he said. As per the Justice Nagamohan Das committee recommendations, reservation for SCs has been increased from 15% to 17% and reservation for STs increased from 3% to 7%, the CM said.
Prove claim on Ambedkar, Chalavadi to CM
Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Council Chalavadi Narayanswami on Tuesday denounced Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s claim that Veer Savarkar was behind Dr B R Ambedkar’s defeat in the parliamentary elections and challenged the latter to prove his claim.
Narayanswamy said he would resign from his position as opposition leader if the CM proves the claim. “But if he fails to show proof for his remark, he should relinquish the chief minister’s post and retire from politics,” he added.
He noted that Siddaramaiah just repeated what RDPR Minister Priyank Kharge had stated on the floor of the House, which was strongly repudiated by the BJP by referring to a letter written by Ambedkar. The CM has made the same claim by putting his reputation at stake.