The Congress party on Sunday trained its guns on the Bharatiya Janata Party for deliberately obstructing a bill aimed at increasing reservations in Telangana, suggesting the delay exposes the latter's lack of commitment to social justice. Congress general secretary in-charge of communications, Jairam Ramesh, underscored the issue, noting that the bill has been awaiting presidential assent for over four months now.
In a post on X, Ramesh contrasted the situation in Telangana with a similar legislative move in Bihar. He pointed out that the Bihar Assembly passed a bill to increase reservations for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes (OBCs), and Extremely Backward Classes (EBCs) to 65 per cent in November 2023. The bill quickly received the Governor's assent and became law on November 21, 2023. Ramesh noted that during the time, Nitish Kumar's government included the Congress and Rashtriya Janata Dal, and the Bharatiya Janata Party was not in a position to "delay or derail" the assent process.
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Conversely, the Telangana Assembly passed a bill to raise reservations for SCs, STs, and Backward Classes to 67 per cent on March 17, 2025. The bill was approved by the Legislative Council the following day, and the governor referred it to the President of India for assent on March 30, 2025.
"Over four months have passed and that assent is still awaited," Ramesh wrote. He concluded that the BJP "is certainly creating hurdles" in Telangana, questioning why else the presidential approval would be held up for so long. This, he argued, demonstrates the BJP's true stance on social justice.
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