INDIA bloc will end 50 pc cap on reservation, protect Constitution with ‘dil, jaan aur khoon’: Rahul

Bansgaon (UP), May 28 (PTI) Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said on Monday 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, “There is INDIA bloc and the Constitution on one side and those who want to finish the Constitution on the other.”

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.

On Agnipath, Gandhi said the INDIA bloc, once it assumes power, will tear apart the scheme and throw it in the dustbin.

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. It provides for recruiting youngsters between the age bracket of 17-and-half years and 21 for four years with a provision to retain 25 per cent of them for 15 more years.

Gandhi also mocked Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his “sent by God” comment and said God sent Modi to help Adani and not the poor.

He asserted that the INDIA bloc will “jumpstart” the country’s economy once it assumes power at the Centre.