On 14 December, while delivering the concluding remarks on the debates over the constitution in Lok Sabha, Prime Minister Narendra Modi again went after his pet target - former PM Jawaharlal Nehru. On the one hand, he slammed the first PM for bringing the first constitutional amendment that imposed restrictions on the freedom of speech and expression, on the other, he evoked the issue of reservation, saying that Nehru was against it.
This is, however, not the first time that PM Modi attacked Nehru for his views on reservation. Before the Lok Sabha elections, addressing the motion of thanks, Modi said, “Nehru ji used to say that if SC/ST/OBC got quotas in jobs, then the standard of government work would fall.”
He was referring to a letter that Nehru wrote to Chief Ministers on 27 June, 1961. Reflecting on his concerns over ‘national integration’, he spoke of the necessity of “getting out of the old habit of reservations and particular privileges being given to this caste or that group.” He also expressed his displeasure over ‘inefficiency and second-rate standards’.
But this letter only provides a small part of Nehru’s broader views on reservation. It is anachronistic to quote him without putting the words into the historical context. Rather, to understand Nehru’s actual views on reservation, one must go back to the Constituent Assembly debates.