Distancing himself from RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat's call for a review of the reservation policy, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today firmly ruled out a rethink on it and assailed a "group of liars" for spreading "falsehood" about quotas facing threat under NDA rule.
Breaking his silence on the contentious issue while invoking B R Ambedkar's legacy on the eve of the first phase of Bihar polls, Modi said,"This falsehood must stop. Terrorising society must end. This is not politics."
Modi, who laid the foundation for a memorial to Ambedkar, the architect of Indian Constitution, said, "Every time when a BJP government is in power, a group of liars spreads the malicious propaganda that we are out to scrap reservations ...It happened during the Atal Bihari Vajapayee government's time as well."
The Prime Minister's assertion at a public meeting after laying the foundation for a Memorial to Ambedkar came a day ahead of the first phase of Bihar polls where reservation is a hotly-debated topic following following RSS chief's Mohan Bhagwat's call for a reivew.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and RJD chief Lalu Prasad have been quick to latch on to Bhagwat's remark to claim there was a sinister attempt to do away with reservations for the backward classes and weaker sections.
Though both BJP and the Centre had distanced themselves from Bhagwat's view on reservations, Modi was under attack for his silence on the issue.
Earlier in the day, Shiv Sena ministers boycotted the ground-breaking ceremony for the memorial after party chief Uddhav Thackeray was not invited to the function, reflecting the widening rift between the saffron partners in the ruling coalition in Maharashtra.
"The Sena ministers were invited for the event, but the BJP has shown a narrow mindset in the name of protocol by not inviting (Sena president) Uddhav Thackeray. He was not even kept in the loop about the invitees from our party for the event," a senior Sena leader said, requesting anonymity.
"What do we understand by this gesture of BJP? It is not as if Uddhav Thackeray asked anybody not to attend the event. He left it to the ministers to decide," he said.
Sena spokesperson Neelam Gorhe said the reports of "diktat" being issued by Thackeray were false.
"It is clear that somebody is trying to malign the image of the party and strain our ties with our ally," Gorhe told PTI.
"There has been no diktat issued by Uddhavji to Sena ministers. All ministers were busy with something or the other."
The absence of Sena ministers could further strain the already frosty ties between BJP and its ally, which has often been openly critical of the Devendra Fadnavis government's handling of the continued agrarian crisis and, more recently, over demand for a meat ban during the 'Paryushan' festival of Jains. Several BJP leaders had supported the ban, while Shiv Sena opposed it.
