OBCs Being Treated In Step-Motherly Manner By BJP Govt: Akhilesh Yadav

Lucknow: Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav on Thursday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Uttar Pradesh on treating backward community in a step-motherly manner and demanded that it should call a session of the Legislature for a debate on reservation to OBCs in urban local body polls.

Addressing a press conference at the party headquarters, Akhilesh said, "The behaviour of BJP towards OBCs has always been step-motherly. Today reservation to OBC is taken away, tomorrow the same will be done away with Dalits."

He said that by ending the reservation for OBCs, they are not only being cheated, but it is a conspiracy to snatch the rights given by Baba Saheb Dr Ambedkar. "It is not being done only in one institution. If you see the working of BJP it is deliberately not giving OBCs and Dalits their due rights deliberately in every institution," he said.

The SP chief alleged that there is a conspiracy to outcast backwards from the politics. "BJP wants votes of the OBCs, but it does not want to give them participation. The government at the center and the state has been formed with the votes of OBCs, but there is no place for them in the government," he said.

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He said that BJP has pushed OBCs and Dalits to a verge where revolution might take place for reservation. "SP and our leaders are of the view that till the time BJP is in power the rights of OBCs and Dalits are not safe. They are being discriminated against and are not getting their due rights and respect," he said.

Akhilesh said that SP is gearing up so that if this fight moves to the Supreme Court then the party will stand with the OBCs to help and cooperate. "We don't have faith in the government. This government is not only discriminating, but it does not want to face elections. The results of recent elections have shown that the people have voted against the wrong policies of this government," he said.

He demanded that if the government's intentions are clear then it should call a session of the Legislature and hold a debate on the issue. "It should clarify its stand in the house and we will say what we have to. SP has always demanded that caste based census should be done because without it OBCs will not get their rights and respect," he said.

Akhilesh also announced that he will visit Ayodhya on January 27 to meet the traders, whose shops and houses have been demolished. "The people of Ayodhya are living in an environment of fear. Whatever was made by their ancestors, houses and business, everything has been ruined. I demand the state government that it is a place of Shri Ram therefore maximum help should be given to the people by providing maximum compensation," he said.

He said that the government should provide land to those who have been displaced in Ayodhya. "The government should listen to the people and help them. It's in the hands of the government. When they can collect thousands of crore rupees in the name of the temple, then why can't they use some money to help the people," he said.

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It may be noted that a political debate over OBC reservation has started after the order of the Allahabad High Court which gave green signal to urban local body polls without reservation to backward communities.

The Lucknow Bench of Allahabad HC had on Tuesday said that no reservation should be provided to OBC until triple test exercise is not completed by the UP government and further directed it to notify the election for the urban local bodies forthwith.

The bench of Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Saurabh Lavania had said, "It is further directed that until the triple test/conditions as mandated by the Supreme Court is completed in all respects by the state government, no reservation for Backward Class of citizens shall be provided." (UNI)

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