Mysore/Mysuru: Maintaining that BJP is against reservation for backward classes and other oppressed sections and is also opposed to decentralisation of power, opposition leader and former Chief Minister Siddharamaiah contended that it was Rajiv Gandhi who empowered democracy by giving more authority to local bodies. He was speaking at the programme organised by Kaginele Kanaka Gurupeetha Shakha Mutt, Mysuru, for felicitating Gram Panchayat heads and members at Kanaka Samudaya Bhavan in Siddharthanagar here yesterday.
Pointing out that the Panchayat Raj system was introduced with an objective of strengthening the federal structure of the country through decentralisation of power, Siddharamaiah said that now the BJP headed Government at the Centre was working against this objective. Accusing the BJP of opposing reservation for backward classes and women and reservation of Gram Panchayat President and Vice-President posts in the Gram Panchayat system, he asserted that the BJP never advocated reservation.
Noting that in the pre-independence days, the then Mysuru ruler Nalwadi Krishnaraja Wadiyar constituted Miller Commission, which gave 75 percent reservation for oppressed sections of the society, Siddharamaiah said that in the post-independence days, the Government constituted Naganagouda, Havanur and Mandal Commissions, the recommendations of which were questioned by the BJP in Courts.
Stating that BJP had even argued that political reservation was against the Constitution, he charged BJP leaders like Yediyurappa and Eshwarappa of being behind legal battles. Accusing BJP Govt. of not building any homes for the shelter less, he charged the Govt. of looting public money in the name of COVID. Kanaka Mutt Seer Sri Siddaramananda Swamiji, Kaginele Seer Sri Shivanandapuri Swamiji, MLA Dr. Yathindra Siddharamaiah, ex-MLA M.K. Somashekar, leaders K. Marigowda and Shivanna, Corporator Gopi, Mandya Kurubara Sangha President Suresh & Karnataka Hindulida Vargagala Jagruta Vedike President K.S. Shivaram were present.
This post was published on October 10, 2021 6:41 pm