The Congress on Friday fished out an old undated “anti-reservation” article penned by Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath to drive home the party’s contention that the BJP’s 400-plus slogan is aimed at changing the Constitution and doing away with quotas.

The article also doubled as the Congress’s response to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s suggestion that the INDIA bloc should learn from Adityanath where to run bulldozers.

In an election speech at Barabanki, Modi alleged that if voted to power the Samajwadi Party and the Congress would bulldoze the Ram temple and added: “They should take tuition from Yogiji, where to run a bulldozer and where you should not.”

The Congress was ready with its counter. “Look how Yogi’s bulldozer is against reservation for Dalits, tribals and other backward classes,” Congress media in-charge Jairam Ramesh posted on X.

Opening the chief minister’s “official portal”, Ramesh in a video drew attention to an article titled “Aarakshan ki aag mein sulagta desh (A country smouldering under reservation)” that is listed under Adityanath’s writings. He picked some sentences from the article to show that the language used by the chief minister was a direct attack on the Constitution.

The article begins with Adityanath saying that if any society is to be made inefficient (“nikamma banana ho”), then provide it facilities for free. While he acknowledges the social realities that necessitated reservation, the chief minister contends that a proper review of this policy was never done. “Had it been reviewed properly, then the country would not have seen such a “bhyaavah” (horrific) image of reservation”, he wrote.

Flagging the article, Ramesh said: “This mindset is the RSS mindset. This is the Prime Minister’s mindset. This mindset wants to remove the Constitution of Babasaheb Ambedkar with the 400-plus slogan. The fact is that the RSS and the BJP have never accepted the Constitution of Babasaheb Ambedkar.”

He further cited an article that appeared in the RSS-affiliated publication Organiser on November 30, 1949, which had said there was nothing from the Manusmriti in the Constitution.

The BJP has time and again clarified that it will not do away with reservations
but the uncontested comments of various party leaders saying that the 400-plus target is to make big changes has created apprehensions of a potential attempt to amend
the Constitution to end quotas if the party is given a huge mandate.