CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (TNCC) president K S Alagiri on Thursday blamed the BJP led union government for abysmally low representation of OBCs and SC/STs in UPSC recruitment in the recent years and reiterated that the denied rights of reservation would be retrieved and social justice ensured after the INDIA alliance forms the government in 2024.
Referring to union minister Jitendra Singh's reply in the Rajya Sabha recently regarding representation of OBCs and SC/STs in UPSC recruitment during the last five years, Alagiri said that the OBCs, SCs and STs have been represented to the tune of 15.92%, 7.65% and 3.80%, respectively. Of 2,163 IAS, 1,403 IPS and 799 IFS (forest) officers recruited in the last five years, only 695, 334 and 166 were OBCs, SC and ST, respectively, the TNCC president quoted the union minister as informing the Parliament.
Describing the low representation as evidence of caste based discrimination, which prevents the social progress of the said class (read as community) of people, Alagiri said that the BJP, which is an offshoot of the RSS and Jan Sangh, has always been a party favouring the upper castes and it has never wholeheartedly accepted the social justice principle of offering reservation to the OBCs and SC/STs.
Reiterating the promise of Rahul Gandhi that caste census would be conducted and reservation rights denied to the OBCs and SC\STs would be retrieved and social justice ensured when the INDIA block wins and power changes at the union government after 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Alagiri said that the time of fulfilling it would be the golden period of social justice.
Remarking that the dream of social justice could not be achieved if the rights were denied to the OBCs and social justice could be upheld only by fully implementing reservation in government jobs, Alagiri said that reservation for OBCs (27%) was implemented by the Congress led UPA government in 2008, but the failure of the subsequent BJP regimes was evident from the aforesaid statistics pertaining to the UPSC recruitment.