Patna: The BJP on Tuesday claimed to be the true saviour of backward classes in general and Extremely Backward Classes (EBC) in particular. The party also attacked the Congress and the RJD on this issue and claimed that these parties always cheated the backward classes.
Deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi and party state unit president Nityanand Rai used a programme the party organised on the eve of the 94th birth anniversary of former chief minister and socialist icon Karpoori Thakur, who hailed from EBC.
Sushil used instances from political history of independent India to substantiate his claim.
He started his attack by referring to the constitution of Kaka Kalelkar commission that had been drafted in 1952 to determine the criteria to determine the criteria to identify the socially and educationally backward classes in the country and prepare a list.
"Though the Kalelkar commission submitted its report in 1953, the then Congress government could not muster the courage to implement it," said the deputy chief minister.
Nityanand Rai chose to focus on the current state of affairs and he raked up the issue of according constitutional status to the National Commission on Backward Classes (NCBC) on a par with the National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) and the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes and reminded the participants that how the Congress and the RJD didn't allow the passage of the bill in Rajya Sabha.
"The Congress and the RJD owe an apology to the people of Extremely Backward Classes," Rai said.
The BJP president didn't forget to mention the appointment of Justice G. Rohini commission by the Narendra Modi government last year to examine the sub-categorisation of Other Backward Classes (OBCs) and maintained that once the commission's report comes, the Prime Minister will take a big step that would help the deprived sections of the society.
BJP's concern for the EBCs - a group composing over 100 castes - has political connotations as the group forms around 29 per cent of voters in Bihar and plays an important role in outcome of the elections.
