The NDA’s candidate for the Presidential elections, Ram Nath Kovind, had opposed to the proposed inclusion of Dalit Christians and Muslims in the Scheduled Caste (S/C) category at a news conference when he was a BJP spokersperson in the past.
While speaking at a press conference at the BJP headquarters in New Delhi On March 26, 2010, Kovind opposed the recommendations of the National Religious and Linguistic Minorities Commission (Ranganath Mishra Commission) to include Dalit Christians and Muslims in the S/C list,reported The Indian Express.
Kovind said the recommendation would make Dalit Christians and Dalit Muslims “eligible to contest elections on reserved seats under backward class reservation.”
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“If the government accepts the Ranganath Mishra Commission recommendations, the convert Christians and Muslims would become eligible to contest on seats reserved for Scheduled Castes. Thus, the people of Scheduled Castes would have to share their reservations in government jobs and political fields with convert Christians and Muslims,” he said while expressing his reservation against the quota for religious minorities, according to The Indian Express.
According to Kovind, all senior leaders, including BR Ambedkar, Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Patel and C Rajagopalachari had rejected the demand, saying that no religious follower other than a Hindu can be granted any reservation as so-called Scheduled Castes have been suffering from untouchability and social discrimination for centuries, reported the newspaper.
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Kovind was one of two defence witnesses examined in the Bangaru Laxman case.
“He deposed that he knows Bangaru Laxman for last 20 years. He deposed that Bangaru Laxman is a straight forward, simple and honest person, who became President of Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP),” the court noted in its judgment, reported The Wire.
Laxman was eventually found guilty under the Prevention of Corruption Act in 2012. He was the BJP president at the time of a sting operation conducted by tehelka.com in 2001.
In his testimony, Kovind told the court that he met Laxman after the Tehelka exposé was telecast and that the BJP president had said he had been “framed” in the case. Kovind said in court that he did not know if Laxman accepted the bribe of Rs 1 lakh.
“He denied the suggestion that after the telecast, a meeting was held of senior BJP leaders and as damage control exercise, it was decided that this amount should be shown as party fund,” the court noted while summarising Kovind’s testimony.
