BRS hits out at Congress, BJP for enacting dramas in BC quota name

HYDERABAD

The Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) criticised the Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for enacting a drama on the issue of enhancing reservation for Backward Classes in the local bodies, education and employment, stating that nobody could stop the increase if the two parties prove their commitment and amend the Constitution.

Senior leader of the party and former Minister T. Harish Rao stated on Saturday that the BJP has a strength of 240 MPs and the Congress has another 99 in the Lok Sabha. If they move a bill together, no other party or group would have the capacity to stop it. He alleged that the two parties were insulting the BCs by enacting a drama on the streets instead of working together in Parliament to pass a bill that would amend the Constitution and include the quota enhancement in Schedule IX.

The Congress governments at the Centre had got the Census done six times in the past, but had never included a caste-wise census to find out the exact number of the BC population. On the other hand, the BJP governments in office since 2014 at the Centre had been postponing the Census for the last five years.

Mr. Harish Rao said that it was K. Chandrasekhar Rao who had demanded a separate ministry for BCs at the Centre, and the BRS government had adopted two resolutions in the Telangana Assembly twice since 2014 with the same plea, but to no avail.

The two parties were vying with each other to make political gains in the name of the BC quota instead of moving in the right direction to realise enhancement in the quota. Mr. Harish Rao demanded that the two parties keep aside political dramas and take up the exercise to enhance BC quota by introducing a bill in Parliament.