Anti-quota mindset: VP’s dig at Rahul

Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar on Sunday said the pattern of prejudice against reservation has been passed down generations and a person holding constitutional post has talked about ending reservations.

In a veiled dig at the Congress and Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi, who recently said in the US that one could think about ending caste-based reservations once India became a fair country, the VP said: “The Constitution is not to be flaunted, it has to be read, understood and respected”.

Dhankhar also launched a covert attack on Gandhi, saying “serialised periodic anti-India rant on foreign soil by one holding constitutional position cannot be countenanced.”

The VP said it was ironic that the sole purpose of some foreign travels was to publicly tear apart the spirit of the Indian Constitution. “Institutions should not be trigger point of political inflammatory debate. Comments and observations, which despirit them, must be avoided. Frontal attack on our democratic constitutional values must be rebuffed,” Dhankhar said.

He noted that reservations were the conscience of Constitution, an affirmative action to bring about equality, and hand hold those who are the pillars of society.

Questioning the mindset that denied conferment of Bharat Ratna to Baba Saheb Ambedkar and implementation of Mandal Commission recommendations for 10 years, Dhankhar said: “The 21 months of Emergency was vengeful dictatorship, a saga of terror was unleashed. It was the darkest phase of Indian democracy.”