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BSP assurance on quota for upper castes

HYDERABAD: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati on Sunday said her Bahujan Samaj Party, if elected to power at the Centre, would bring in a constitutional amendment to provide reservation to the poor among upper castes based on their socio-economic backwardness.

Addressing a rally here, she said she had written to the Centre and requested national parties to ensure that the amendment was introduced but none of them was interested.

The Uttar Pradesh government had already provided the poor among upper castes a 10 per cent quota in government departments that were privatised.

Ms. Mayawati said the BSP was concerned at privatisation of government departments as it eliminated the rule of reservation. It was unfortunate that the Centre promoted privatisation with a view to diluting the reservation policy.

She also regretted that the Centre was “indifferent” to the BSP’s demand to treat Dalit Christians as Scheduled Castes.

Many Dalits in Uttar Pradesh were converting to Christianity but they did not get social status and they remained poor.

The Congress, the BJP and other national parties were not interested in improvement of the conditions of weaker sections, she alleged.

Ms. Mayawati came down on a daily and some TV channels for putting out false reports that the Uttar Pradesh government had marginalised Brahmins by scrapping their caste organisations. Such organisations no longer existed as they merged with the BSP before the Assembly elections, attracted by the party’s ideology, she said.

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