Hyderabad: Asserting that reservations to other backward classes (OBCs) can't be discontinued at all, MIM president Asaduddin Owaisi on Monday asked the Narendra Modi government to make its stand clear on the statement by RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat.
He said the true face of the government was slowly coming out as it wants Hindu consolidation to ensure that OBC reservation and other reservation comes down.
"We would like to know what is Modi government's policy on the statement given by the RSS chief who is ideological guru of all swayamsevaks including the prime minister," the Hyderabad MP said while reacting to Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief's statement.
Owaisi said calling for a review of reservation policy was convenient way of saying that reservation should be discontinued to OBCs. "This can't be done at all," he said.
The Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) leader challenged the Modi government to release caste census. "The whole world will come to know what is the actual reality and then OBCs will decide."
He also wanted to know why the government was opposing promotions to Dalits in government employment.
Faced with criticism, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh sought to suggest that Bhagwat's remarks in an interview were misunderstood.
"Bhagwat ji has not commented on the reservation, which different weaker sections of the society are enjoying," RSS chief spokesman Manmohan Vaidya said in a statement.
"Instead, he had said that everybody should discuss (the issue so) that benefits of reservation should reach all weaker sections of the society as envisaged by the constitution makers.
"The subject of the interview was integral humanism, not reservation," the statement added.
The RSS chief on Sunday pitched for a review of the reservation policy, contending it had been used for political ends and suggesting setting up an apolitical committee to examine who needs the facility and till when.
"If we would have implemented this policy as envisaged by the constitution makers instead of doing politics over it, then the present situation would not have arrived," Bhagwat had said.
On Monday, Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad dared the RSS and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to end education and job quotas.
The BJP also clarified that it was not in favour of reconsidering the reservation policy.
"The BJP is not in favour of any reconsideration of reservation being extended to ST, SC, OBC," union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told the media here.