With each passing day the frustration and the fear of being rejected by the people is taking its toll on the political rivals of the NDA’s PM candidate Shri Narendra Modi. With every lie of theirs failing, they have come up with another lie today about his caste status.
It should be noted that the ‘Modh Ghanchi’ caste and this particular sub-caste stands included in the Gujarat Government list (25-B) of 146 castes of Socially Educationally Backward Class and Other Backward Class (OBC) list. Earlier after a survey in Gujarat, the Mandal Commission had prepared a list of OBCs under index 91(A), which included the Modh-Ghanchi cast in it. The Indian Government’s list 105 OBC castes for Gujarat has also included ‘Modh-Ghanchi’ caste in it.
The notification to include this sub-caste into the OBC list was released by the Gujarat Government on 25th July 1994. It should be remembered that that time there was a Congress Government in power headed by Shri Chhabildas Mehta. The same sub-caste was included as OBC as per a GoI notification dated 4th April 2000. When both these notifications were released Shri Narendra Modi was nowhere in power nor was he holding any exective office at that time.
The notification of 2002 that the learned former Leader of the Opposition in Gujarat is talking about is merely a reinforcement of the GoI notification dated back to 2000. The concerned leader was himself a Minister of State in the Gujarat government from 1991 till 1995 and it is surprising that he has forgotten decisions taken by a Government that he himself was a part of. Thus, it raises a fundamental question whether we can believe an individual and a party sufferring from selective amnesia combined with a pathological disdain for the marginalised sections of society.
