Mangaluru: Opposing the Supreme Court’s order regarding reservations for appointment and promotions in government jobs, former MP and Congress party leader V S Ugrappa has urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah to convene an all-party meeting and file a review petition with the Supreme Court immediately.
Addressing the reporters here on Friday, February 14, Ugrappa expressed his suspicion about the hidden hand of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the BJP leaders in the Supreme Court’s order. “Earlier, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat had spoken against reservations in the appointment and promotion for SC/STs. Prior to the Lok Sabha elections, BJP MP Ananth Kumar Hegde had openly stated that the BJP would change the Constitution if it is voted to power. Now, the Supreme Court’s order against the reservation indicates that both the RSS and BJP leaders have done something in order to scrap the reservation. If the BJP leaders have any concern about the SCs and STs, and if they have trust Dr B R Ambedkar, they should immediately call all party leaders and file a review petition in the Supreme Court immediately,” he said.
Ugrappa cautioned that a massive protest would be staged in the coming days if the Union Government does not take any measures to ensure reservations for the SC/STs.
Commenting on the judgement by a two-judge bench of the Supreme Court regarding the criminalisation of politics in India, Ugrappa demanded the expulsion of Karnataka’s new forest minister, Anand Singh from the cabinet. “Even thougfh Anand Singh has over 15 criminal cases, pertaining to criminal conspiracy, illegal mining, forest encroaching and others, against him, Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa has inducted him allotted the forest ministry to him. With this, Yediyurappa has allowed Anand Singh to encroach more forest land in the future. As Anand Singh has no moral right to assume power as the forest minister and he has 15 more criminal cases against him, he should immediately be expelled from the cabinet,” he said.
I won’t speak a single word against BJP if it secures more than 300 seats
Quoting the statement of senior BJP leader Subramanian Swamy that ‘BJP-mukt Bharat” could be a reality in the near future, Ugrappa said, “Even the BJP leaders themselves don’t have faith in the administration of the Union Government. So how can the BJP’s dream of a ‘Congress-mukt Bharat’ be realised? If the BJP faces the next Lok Sabha election with ballot papers instead of EVMs and secures more than 300 seats, I won’t speak a single word against the BJP until my last breath,” he announced.
MLA U T Khader and other Congress leaders Sadashiv Ullal, Mohammed Monu, Sudheer T K, Neeraj Pal, Santhosh Shetty and others were present.
