Modi Puts the Lid on Reservations, Once and for all?

Recently, a deep fake video of Amit Shah went viral in which he can be heard saying that once the BJP comes back to power, it will abolish reservations for the SC/ST and OBCs. Naturally, this video created a furor. 

What Amit Shah actually said was that the BJP would do away with reservations for Muslims (currently the Congress is planning on reservations for Muslims and BRS did in Telangana too but the matter is sub-judice.

Once a video goes viral, people rarely bother to check the accuracy of the content, especially in the rural places.

Therefore, Amit Shah’s fake video had the potential to scare the SC/ST and OBC communities across the nation.

For long, it has been rumored that the BJP which is looked upon as a Brahmin Party is against reservations and wanted to usher in an era of meritocracy. 

But in reality, the BJP led by the RSS is actually looking to unite the country in the name of Hindutva and encouraging the Dalits and OBCs in a huge way. 

Prime Minister Modi himself is an OBC whereas the Honorable President of India, Smt Draupadi Murmu hails from the Dalit community. 

Naturally, the Amit Shah video although fake could have caused problems for the NDA alliance.

But with Narendra Modi himself announcing that there was absolutely no plan to do away with reservations, the NDA alliance can heave a sigh of relief.

Interestingly, Modi also said that he would not allow reservations on the basis of religion (read Muslims) as long as he was alive thereby deflecting the entire attention once again onto the Muslim community.

Therefore, while we do not know whether reservations will eventually be removed at some point in the future, it’s pretty much clear that no such exercise would be undertaken at least until 2029.