00:00As the election campaign heats up here in India, the issue of India's constitution
00:09and reservations for backward castes has become the biggest focal point for the BJP in the
00:14Congress.
00:15Ever since the beginning of this campaign, we've seen the opposition led by Rahul Gandhi
00:19telling people that if the BJP comes back to power this time, then it will use its majority
00:24to change the constitution and to do away with reservations altogether.
00:29Now this appears to be a messaging that has now got the BJP worried because all of a sudden,
00:34we are seeing the BJP leadership led by the Prime Minister and other top leaders hammering
00:39home the point that no, they are not going to change the constitution, that was never
00:43their plan, and that in fact, they've now turned the tables on the Congress and are
00:48going around telling people in public rallies that the Congress, in fact, will take away
00:52the reservations of backward castes, of Hindu backward castes, that is, and then give them
00:57to Muslims instead.
00:59So they have ended up polarizing this election once again on religious lines.
01:04This is a very, very sensitive issue here in India for many reasons.
01:08Reservations, in fact, is something that the RSS, the parent organization of the BJP, has
01:13historically been against.
01:16We also know that the RSS chief back in 2015, just before the Bihar elections, had spoken
01:21about doing away with reservations, and that is a comment that backfired on the BJP in
01:26Bihar at the time, and it ended up not doing well in those assembly polls.
01:30Now the RSS leadership too is at pains to say that it does not want to do away with
01:35reservations.
01:36So this is clearly, as I said, a sensitive issue, and it'll be interesting to see how
01:40it plays out in the weeks ahead.
01:42A senior NDA leader told me as much a few days ago, admitting that the opposition's
01:48stirring of anxiety over the constitution is a message that seems to have gone down
01:53to some of the most backward communities in the country, and that is why the BJP leadership
01:57is now going on the counter-offensive.
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