A video of Prime Minister Modi talking about reservations in parliament is being widely shared across social media platforms with the claim that Modi doesn’t like the reservation system especially in jobs. Through this article let’s fact-check the claim made in the post.
The archived version of this post can be found here.
Claim: Video of Prime Minister Modi saying that he doesn’t like reservations.
Fact: The video shared in the viral post shows an edited video clip of Modi’s full speech. On 7 February 2024, PM Modi replied to the debate on the motion of thanks to the President of India’s address in the Rajya Sabha. During his speech, he mentioned that Congress is always against SCs/STs and the reservation system. PM Modi stated that Jawaharlal Nehru once wrote a letter to the chief ministers of the Indian Union expressing his dislike for reservation. Then, PM Modi read out Nehru’s quote, which said, “I dislike any kind of reservation, more particularly in services. I am strongly against anything which leads to inefficiency and second-rate standards” in the Rajya Sabha. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
When we searched for details of the video using relevant keywords, we found an article published by the Hindustan Times on 07 February 2024. The article reports that PM Modi while replying to the debate on the motion of thanks to the President’s address in the Rajya Sabha, cited a letter written by Jawaharlal Nehru to chief ministers. The letter clearly states that the first prime minister was against reservation of any kind, especially in jobs, as it adversely affected the functioning of the government.
We then found the extended version of the video on Sansad TV, where we can see PM Modi replying to the debate on the motion of thanks to the President of India’s address in the Rajya Sabha. During his speech, PM Modi conveyed his thanks to the President of India and criticized the Congress party’s decisions on various issues such as terrorism, the Naxalite issue, internal and external security, etc., during their government. At a point in his speech, he mentioned that Congress is always against SCs/STs and the reservation system. PM Modi stated that Jawaharlal Nehru once wrote a letter to the chief ministers of the Indian Union expressing his dislike for reservation. Then, PM Modi read out Nehru’s quote, which said, ‘I dislike any kind of reservation, more particularly in services. I am strongly against anything which leads to inefficiency and second-rate standards ‘ in the Rajya Sabha. From this information, it is evident that the video shared in the viral post shows an edited video clip of Modi’s full speech while he was quoting Nehru’s letter to Chief Ministers against reservations, and he didn’t make any comments against the reservation system.
To sum it up, PM Modi didn’t say that he was against the reservation system; he was quoting Nehru’s 1961 letter in Rajya Sabha.
