Slamming the RSS and the BJP for remarks made by an RSS leader on reservations, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Dilip Pandey on Saturday said his party will not allow their anti-Dalit and anti-backward classes mentality to succeed.
"Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh spokesperson Manmohan Vaidya's statement to end reservation represents an anti-Dalit and anti-backward class mentality of the RSS and the Bharatiya Janata Party," Pandey said at a press conference here.
"This has exposed the thinking of the RSS and BJP towards the Dalit community," Pandey added.
"The so-called progressive minds of the RSS are not eliminating caste but ending the reservation for Dalits has become their top priority."
Vaidya, head of the RSS Communications Department, said at the Jaipur Literature Festival (JLF) on Friday that no reservation should continue for long and the reason for the poor socio-economic status of the Muslims is that a vast majority of them belong to economically backward states.
Vaidya and RSS Joint General Secretary Dattatreya Hosabale were participating in a discussion on "Of Saffron and the Sangh", at the JLF.
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Pandey referred to Union Minister of State General V.K. Singh's statement in the past, wherein he had allegedly compared Dalits to dogs.
The AAP leader said that the RSS and the BJP as well as people associated with them are not only against reservation for Dalits, but also their ideology and thinking was against the downtrodden.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday said he would not let the "anti-Dalit" RSS and BJP end reservations at any cost.
"The RSS has repeated today (Friday) that it is against reservation. The BJP, RSS and Akalis are anti-Dalit. We won't let them end reservation at any cost," Kejriwal tweeted.
--IANS
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