Union ministers Chirag Paswan and Jitan Ram Manjhi on Saturday sparred over a separate sub-category for the most deprived Dalit sections, with the LJP (Ram Vilas) chief opposing it as divisive and the former Bihar chief minister arguing it would benefit the community.
“Reservations were introduced through the Constitution by Ambedkar. “My younger brother has a bigger party, with more numbers (in the Parliament and the state legislature). Let him take the lead, and I shall resign alongside. “They (Congress) have ruled the country for so long. If such social inequality continues, they have no moral right to complain. Rather, they should share the blame. Ram, who was formerly with the Congress, had been in Varanasi to unveil a statue of Sampurnanand, an upper-caste leader who had been the longest-serving chief minister of Uttar Pradesh until the record was broken by Yogi Adityanath.
At the same time, Dalits must remain united so that they remain strong enough to fight for their rights,” said Paswan.
Asked by reporters to comment on the remarks by Manjhi and his son Santosh Kumar Suman, a minister in Bihar, favouring the sub-quota, Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) chief Chirag Paswan said that it would “create a schism within the community”. But he must understand I am speaking neither against quotas nor in favour of introducing the creamy layer,” he said. Now, there must not be any dispute over quotas,” said JD(U) legislature party leader and state minister Shrawon Kumar. Notably, both Paswan and Manjhi found themselves on the same page when their responses were sought to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s fulminations against alleged “purification” of a temple after the visit of party president Mallikarjun Kharge, who is a Dalit. Manjhi reminded Congress of late Jagjivan Ram, who “rose to become the Deputy Prime Minister, yet, when he once visited the Kashi Vishwanath temple in Varanasi, it was washed with Gangajal thereafter”.
