Patna: RJD chief Lalu Prasad's charge against the Centre for doing away with 27 per cent quota for OBCs in recruitment of professors in central universities is "false, baseless and confusing" as the HRD ministry's letter is just a reiteration of UPA's reservation policy, senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi said on Tuesday.
"Lalu Prasad's allegations that Centre is doing away with reservation for OBCs in the appointment of Professors and Associate Professors are completely false, baseless and confusing," he told reporters in Patna.
Read: Sushil Modi seconds Uma Bharti's assertions on Nitish, Mamata
"The current NDA government at the Centre has neither tinkered with the existing reservation policy, nor amended or changed it. This (UGC letter of June 3) is just a reiteration of the old policy which was notified during the UPA regime in the light of Supreme Court directive," he said.
The reservation policy with regard to the appointment of assistant professors in central universities was brought by UPA through various letters/memoranda issued in 1993, 2006, 2007, 2010 when BJP was not in power, he said.
"There is no question of doing away with the reservation policy as long as BJP government is there at the Centre. We assure people belonging to SC, ST and OBC that there will not be any tinkering with the existing policy," the BJP leader said, adding Prasad should apologise to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his statement.
Hitting out at Prasad, Sushil said it was in fact during former's regime that panchayat polls were conducted in Bihar without giving reservation benefits to the SCs and STs for contesting the posts of mukhiya, pramukh (block head) and district board chairmen.
It was the NDA government which reserved these posts for SC, ST and extremely backward class people after coming to power in Bihar, he added.
