INDIA bloc will end 50% cap on reservation: Rahul

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said on Tuesday that an INDIA bloc government will end the 50 per cent cap on reservation while asserting that the alliance will protect the Constitution with "dil, jaan aur khoon".

Addressing an election rally in Uttar Pradesh's Bansgaon with Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, Gandhi said, "These elections are a battle of ideologies. There is INDIA bloc and the Constitution on one side and those who want to finish the Constitution on the other."

Holding up a copy of the Constitution and a photograph of Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar, Gandhi said Ambedkar dedicated his life to the Constitution. "Dalits faced atrocities for years. In our Constitution, they were given honour. But now, the BJP says that it will tear apart Ambedkar's work. No force can dare to tear the Constitution of Dr Ambedkar and (Jawaharlal) Nehru," the former Congress president said.

The INDIA bloc will protect the Constitution with "dil, jaan aur khoon (heart, life and blood)", he said and added that the alliance will end the 50 per cent cap on reservation while also increasing it. "We did this wherever we ran the government - be it in Chhattisgarh or Madhya Pradesh. We will do this in the entire country," he said.

On the Agnipath scheme, Gandhi said the INDIA bloc, once it assumes power, will tear apart the scheme and throw it in the dustbin. "Modi ji has turned soldiers into labourers. The Centre has made two categories in the army - Agniveer and others. If an Agniveer gets injured or is martyred, he will neither get a martyr status nor compensation," Gandhi claimed. "Why this discrimination?" he asked. Gandhi said Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who calls himself a true patriot, insulted jawans by implementing the the scheme.

The government rolled out the Agnipath recruitment scheme in June 2022 for short-term induction of personnel with an aim to bring down the age profile of the three

armed services.