By Devesh K. Pandey
Copyright thehindu
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday (September 24, 2025) dismissed as a “sham” the Congress party’s announcement of a 10-point programme targeting the Extremely Backward Classes (EBCs) in Bihar ahead of the Assembly polls, accusing the party of indulging in appeasement politics.
At a media briefing, BJP MP Sambit Patra alleged that the Congress had a long history of being opposed to the policy of reservation, particularly for the Other Backward Classes (OBCs).
Citing a 1990 speech of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in Parliament, Mr. Patra said: “He spoke against the Mandal Commission recommendations brought by then Prime Minister V.P. Singh, saying that if 27% reservation was given to OBCs, the country’s situation will worsen…,”
He said Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi habitually made only “empty promises”. “His father spoke against OBCs then, and now this ‘nepotism kid’ is speaking in favour of OBCs in an entirely different manner…these people who did not even form an OBC Commission during their rule are now making such promises,” said Mr. Patra.
The BJP leader alleged that the Congress party’s appeasement politics was limited to only one religion. “Rajiv Gandhi, while speaking in Parliament in 1990, had said ‘don’t implement OBC reservation. What about Muslim reservation?’ Even today, Rahul Gandhi has spoken about Muslim reservation,” Mr. Patra said.
Pointing out that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had recently declared in Parliament that there would be a caste census, Mr. Patra wondered why in Congress-ruled Karnataka, results of the first caste survey were not released, and why another such exercise had to be carried out. “They are in power in Karnataka, and there they gave 4% reservation in government contracts and tenders only to Muslims,” the BJP leader said.
He said under the leadership of an OBC Prime Minister in Mr. Modi, a series of measures has been taken to extend the benefits of reservation to the OBCs and extremely backward communities (EBCs).
Earlier, at another press conference, the BJP alleged that the Congress convened its Central Working Committee (CWC) meeting in Bihar after a gap of 85 years to take the “driving seat” from the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and demand more tickets for the upcoming Assembly polls.
“This is why they have not declared Tejashwi Yadav as their Chief Ministerial candidate so far. In the yatra (Voter Adhikar Yatra) taken out by the Congress in Bihar recently, he was projected as playing second fiddle to Rahul Gandhi,” said former Union Minister and senior BJP MP Ravi Shankar Prasad.
He said the Congress, which chose to hold the meet in the State after such a long gap, should answer why it remained “silent” when people in Bihar were suffering “the reign of terror, kidnappings, loot, and corruption that defined Lalu Prasad’s government”.
Expressing anguish over Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge’s remarks on Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Mr. Prasad said the BJP-led NDA had clearly said that Mr. Kumar would remain the Chief Minister and that there was confusion on their part in this regard.
Mr. Prasad accused the Congress of insulting the people of Bihar, referring to a now-deleted post by the Kerala Congress on X — purportedly comparing ‘beedi with Bihar’.
He countered the charge made by Mr. Gandhi, who had claimed that there is unemployment in the country because of “forgery in the elections”, with data from the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO). He said the BJP’s ethos had always been to ensure the benefits of reservation. “Today, the Prime Minister of India is from an extremely backward family, and the President of India is from an Adivasi family…our previous President was also from a Dalit family. We gave the OBC Commission constitutional status…,” Mr. Prasad added.
