Mohan Bhagwat & BJP questioned quotas uncomfortable with social justice, says Siddaramaiah

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Friday said RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat and BJP leaders questioned the legitimacy and duration of reservations in a sign of their core discomfort with social justice and with an intent to dismantle constitutional safeguards for backward classes.

The BJP-RSS ideology doesn’t seek to dismantle the caste hierarchy, instead it seeks to sanctify it, the CM said, speaking at the Bhagidari Nyay Sammelan organized by the AICC in New Delhi. “Their (BJP-RSS) dream is a hierarchy where silence is loyalty and injustice is tradition.”

Even today, Siddaramaiah said one hears of “merit” as if it were born in a vacuum. “What chance does the child of a laundry worker have against the son of an upper-caste landlord or a crony capitalist? The game was rigged before it began…This caste-driven inequality is not just economic but also a socially structured violence. For centuries, millions of children never saw a classroom, not because they lacked talent, but because the system deemed them invisible.”
Stepping up his attack on the BJP-RSS combine, the CM said from Golwalkar’s rejection of caste-based affirmative action to the RSS calling Mandal a “caste war,” their ideology mirrored Manu Vadi and Social Darwinist thinking, where only the dominant deserved to thrive.

“Our dreams must be different. We must build an India where birth does not define destiny, where Utpadaka Varga (blue-collared workers) are not forgotten, but honoured, and where justice is not delayed by design, but delivered by Constitutional Democracy,” Siddaramaiah who rose the political ladder campaigning the issues focused on minorities, OBCs and Dalits (Ahinda).

RSS-BJP’s Manuvadi worldview is Social Darwinism in disguise, but our Constitution promises not survival of the fittest, but justice for the weakest. “Hence, I call for the protection of our Constitution. Only through the protection of the Constitution can we realise true social justice and equity.”In Karnataka, the state government has built hostels, coaching centres and introduced scholarships, skill programs, and reservations for contract workers and in allotment of industrial plots for backward class entrepreneurs. “But the BJP and RSS, driven by Manuvadi and Social Darwinist ideas, oppose these reforms, not because they lack merit, but because they fear equality.”BJP’s slogans, Siddaramaiah said, masked its ideological discomfort with social justice. From Agnipath to privatisation, their policies bypass reservations.

The CM said he supported a nationwide caste census, political reservation, proportionate (75%) representation, educational empowerment, economic opportunities, and social awareness as essential pillars for the upliftment of our backward classes.