Cong yet to raise voice, seems to favour SC, ST sub-classification: BSP

BSP chief Mayawati on Sunday said the Congress, which won Lok Sabha seats by promising to protect reservation, seems to be in favour of sub-classification within SCs and STs and is yet to raise its voice against the issue of exclusion of the creamy layer in these communities from the benefits of quota.

On August 1, the Supreme Court held that states are constitutionally empowered to make sub-classifications within scheduled castes and scheduled tribes, and batted for the creamy layer be excluded from reservation.

"The national president of the Congress (Mallikarjun Kharge) said before disclosing the party's stand on sub-classification of SCs and STs, his party will consult NGOs and lawyers and others. This makes it clear that Congress is in favour of sub-classification," Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati said in a series of posts on X in Hindi.

"The Congress has spoken in a vague manner about the creamy layer issue. Despite it having 99 MPs, no voice was raised in Parliament till the adjournment to nullify the Supreme Court's decision, whereas this party has won these seats in the name of saving the Constitution and reservation," she said.

Mayawati also said after the BSP's press conference on Saturday, "we got to know about the statement given by the Congress president, in which the credit for reservation has been given not to Baba Saheb Dr. Bhimrao ambedkar but to Pandit Nehru and Gandhiji, in which there is not even an iota of truth".

"Whereas in reality the entire credit for reservation goes to Baba Saheb Dr. Bhimrao ambedkar, whom the Congress conspired to prevent from entering the Constituent assembly and also defeated in the elections. He was also forced to resign from the post of Law Minister," Mayawati said.

On Saturday, Mayawati had questioned the "silence of the Congress" on the August 1 judgment of the Supreme Court directing the states to evolve a policy for identifying the creamy layer among the SCs and STs.

Asserting that the idea of denying reservation to SCs and STs on account of the creamy layer concept is "condemnable", the Congress on Saturday had said that the government should have brought a legislation in Parliament to nullify that part of the Supreme Court judgement that talks about the issue.

Congress chief Kharge had said while the party was holding deliberations with intellectuals, experts and NGOs on the Supreme Court's decision allowing states to create sub-categorisation within the SCs and STs and will take a call after detailed discussions, it is opposed to that part which advocates the creamy layer concept.