Accusing the Narendra Modi government of being "anti-Dalit", Congress today attacked it for filing a review petition over a Supreme Court order in favour of reservations in promotion to higher grade officers of PSU banks, and sought to corner Dalit leaders of NDA in poll-bound Bihar over it.
"Will Jitan Ram Manjhi, Ram Vilas Paswan and Upendra Kushwaha go with Modiji in Bihar now after BJP has taken this anti-Dalit stand?" party spokesperson Kapil Sibal asked at the AICC briefing.
NDA, backed by Dalit leaders like Paswan from LJP and Mahadalilt leader Manjhi from HAM, is hoping to make deep inroads among Dalits in Bihar in this Assembly polls as it had done in Uttar Pradesh during last Lok Sabha polls.
Congress, which is fighting the Assembly polls in Bihar in alliance with RJD and JD(U), is worried over a possible shift of Dalit votes to the NDA.
Alleging "politics" behind some recent initiatives of BJP and RSS for Dalits in Bihar, Congress spokesperson Kapil Sibal recalled that RSS had once termed "Manusmriti" as the "most worshippable scripture after the Vedas".
Manusmriti, an ancient Hindu scripture, has repeatedly been slammed by Dalit bodies for its views on the community.
"The duplicity of the BJP is evident on the issue of providing reservations in promotions with respect to higher grade level officers of PSU banks," Sibal said.
He recalled that the party had earlier supported the Constitution (One Hundred Seventeenth Amendment) Bill, 2012 introduced by the UPA and passed by Rajya Sabha on December 17, 2012, to provide reservation in promotion.
