Eyeing the Punjab elections, Aam Aadmi Party convenor Arvind Kejriwal in the fifth national council meeting on Wednesday spoke at length against the Centre, its failure to help the farmers, and called it anti-Dalit.
He also asked party members to spread the word about the “Delhi model of governance” and promised to replicate it in Punjab — the party’s next big focus after Delhi.
“No major relief package has been either announced or even contemplated (by the Centre). On the contrary, the AAP government in Delhi has time and again given record relief packages to farmers affected by crop loss. We resolve to demand that the Modi government… in case of crop damage by natural causes, increase the per acre crop loss to Rs. 20,000 as had already been done by the Delhi government and announce a major farm loan waiver to stop farmer suicides,” read the political resolution taken up at the meeting.
Evoking Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar and Rohith Vemula during the National Council meet, Mr. Kejriwal said that reservation is essential to help the deprived and marginalized section of society advance.
Taking a pro-reservation stand, Mr. Kejriwal termed the Modi-government as being anti-Dalit.
“We are committed to ensuring the effective implementation of existing provisions of reservations in higher education and government jobs. It is the most deprived sections of Indian youth and students that benefit from such reservation. But the Central government… is seeking to persecute Dalit students,” Mr. Kejriwal said.
As per Census 2011, Punjab has the highest percentage of Scheduled Caste population in the country — 31.9 percent of the total population.
The three political parties in Punjab — AAP, BJP-SAD (combine) and Congress — are going all out to woo the SC voters in Punjab.
The meeting also saw the new National Executive (NE) being announced, which is the party’s second-highest decision making body, with 19 new names — including seven women.
The 25-member body includes several names from Punjab, which is going to polls in 2017, and four SC members.
