Lok Sabha row over Anurag Thakur's caste remark a 'drama', both BJP, Cong anti-OBC: Mayawati

Lucknow: Bahujan Samaj Party president Mayawati on Wednesday said the recent spat between the opposition and treasury benches in Lok Sabha over a caste remark was a "drama" and an "attempt to deceive the OBC community".

Mayawati said both BJP and Congress have a history of remaining "fiercely anti-OBC", so they cannot be trusted.

BJP leader Anurag Thakur's apparent reference to Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi's caste during a discussion on the Union Budget in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday triggered a spat between the opposition and treasury benches.

"Yesterday in the Parliament, the ongoing dispute between Congress and BJP etc. especially on caste and caste census was a drama and an attempt to deceive the OBC community, because the history of both the parties regarding their reservation has been fiercely anti-OBC, both openly and behind the scenes. It is not right to trust them," Mayawati wrote on X in Hindi on Wednesday.

1. कल संसद में ख़ासकर जाति व जातीय जनगणना को लेकर कांग्रेस व बीजेपी आदि में जारी तकरार नाटकबाज़ी तथा ओबीसी समाज को छलने की कोशिश, क्योंकि इनके आरक्षण को लेकर दोनों ही पार्टियों का इतिहास खुलेआम व पर्दे के पीछे भी घोर ओबीसी-विरोधी रहा है। इन पर विश्वास करना ठीक नहीं। 1/2

— Mayawati (@Mayawati) July 31, 2024

She said, in another post, the National Caste Census is a key issue of public interest, towards which the Centre needs to be serious, in the way the BSP implemented OBC reservation in Uttar Pradesh.

"Crores of poor-backward and Bahujans also have a right in the development of the country, in the fulfillment of which the caste census plays an important role,"the BSP supremo added.