BJP-RSS are against reservations, the duo wants removal of SC/ST progress: Rahul Gandhi

New Delhi, Feb 10: Congress leader and former party president Rahul Gandhi on Monday lashed out at the BJP-RSS and said that they are against the reservation. This comment, by the Congress leader came following the Supreme Court upholding 2018 amendments to the SC/ST Act.

Addressing a gathering, Rahul Gandhi said, "BJP and RSS ideologies are against reservations. They never want SC/STs to progress. They are breaking the institutional structure."

The Congress leader also said that erasing the reservation for the SC/ST/OBC and Dalits were in the DNA of RSS and BJP. "I want to tell SC/ST/OBC and Dalits that we will never let reservations come to an end no matter how much Modi Ji or Mohan Bhagwat dream of it," he said.

On Monday, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutional validity of the SC/ST Amendment Act, 2018, and said a court could grant anticipatory bail only in cases where a prima facie case is not made.

A bench, headed by Justice Arun Mishra said that initial inquiry is not essential before lodging an FIR under the act and the approval of senior police officials is not needed.

Other member of the bench, Justice Ravindra Bhat said that every citizen needs to treat their fellow citizens neutrally and uphold the concept of fraternity.

The Supreme Court's verdict came on a batch of Public Interest Litigations (PIL) challenging the validity of the SC/ST Amendment Act of 2018, which was brought to annul the effect of the court's 2018 ruling, which had weakened the provisions of the stringent Act.

Earlier, Rahul Gandhi had lashed put at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his "tubelight" barb and said he does not behave like a prime minister.

"Normally, a prime minister has a particular status, a prime minister has a particular way of behaving, a particular stature, our prime minister doesn't have these. He does not behave in a prime ministerial way," he had told reporters outside Parliament.