Lolaksha, General Secretary of Samatha Sainik Dal has invited Mohan Bhagwat to Bengaluru for a debate on reservation saying, “We feel, initiating a comprehensive and multidimensional dialogue on ‘Reservation’ is the need of the hour as we have variety of wrong notions about the concept of Reservation envisaged in the constitution and the way it’s being implemented by the state. We strongly feel that in the larger interests of the nation in general and the marginalized people in particular, we have to analyze the positive and negative implications made by the ‘Reservation’ on the core values enshrined in the constitution, i.e. justice, equality, liberty and fraternity,”
Image Courtesy: Deccan Herald
He invited Mr Bhagwat to inaugurate a ‘historic national consultation or a round table conference on reservation’ on September 24, the Poona Pact day, or on any date of his choice in the month of October at Bengaluru . According to him, constitutional experts, legal luminaries, social thinkers, experts from different fields and leaders from various organizations and political parties will also be invited to this consultation programme.
He also claimed that ‘dalit thinkers are always having an open minded approach towards all types of criticism on all policies and thoughts’ and that ‘In spite of sharp reaction given by eminent political leaders like Mayavathi, Ram Vilas Paswan, Ramdas Athawale, P L Punia and others, the dalit thinkers and activists are always ready to have a conversation, in a harmonious atmosphere, with anti-reservationists’
Many Dalit leaders including Chandrasekhar Azad have challenged Mohan Bhagwat for a debate on reservation ever since he brought up the contentious topic during a talk August 19, saying “that there should be open-hearted debate pertaining to reservation given to SC/ST/OBCs” , leading many to wonder if the abrogation of reservations was on the cards.