Bengaluru, (DHNS): Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Sunday said the reservation policy will have to continue as long as caste system exists in society.

Speaking after presenting the D Devaraj Urs Award-2017 to former Union Minister M Mallikarjun Kharge at the Vidhana Soudha in Bengaluru, Siddaramaiah blamed the BJP for working against equality in society and charged the party of taking a stand against reservation.

He said “real independence” can be achieved only if there is social and economic freedom for all. The chief minister accused the BJP of trying to scuttle the rights of states on deciding on reservation for communities by proposing to give constitutional status to the National Commission for Other Backward Classes.

He sought to know how many times BJP president Amit Shah had spoken in favour of reservation. Even senior BJP leaders such as L K Advani had opposed the recommendations of the Mandal Commission, he said.

Kharge even accused the BJP to trying to tamper with the Constitution to do away with reservation.

Siddaramaiah accused the BJP of opposing pro-people and pro-poor policies of the state government such as Anna Bhagya scheme of providing free rice to BPL families and Indira canteen set up to help the poor get meals at affordable rates.

“No Indira canteen has come up in areas declared as play grounds or parks as claimed by the BJP. Elite clubs have come up in parks, however the BJP is not opposing them. The party only targets the poor,” he charged.

‘Beware of the BJP’

At another event to celebrate Urs’ 102nd birth anniversary organised by the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee at Sir Puttanna Chetty Town Hall in Bengaluru, party working president Dinesh Gundu Rao urged Congress workers to beware of the BJP. The BJP is capable of hatching a conspiracy of adulterating food served at the canteens to scuttle the scheme, he charged.

The Devaraj Urs Award, instituted by the state government, carries a purse of Rs 2 lakh and a citation. After receiving the award, Kharge turned emotional while recalling his days as a minister in the Urs’ Cabinet.