Once bitten over the RSS's remarks on reservation, the BJP is twice shy.

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Wary of the political fallout of its ideological mentor's statement that the prosperous should help the weaker sections instead of asking for reservation, the BJP is giving its own spin to it. BJP leaders said the RSS was alluding to people giving up reservation voluntarily, on the lines of the LPG subsidy.

This argument was given by two party leaders, on condition of anonymity, even as they made it clear that they were only referring to remarks made by the RSS.

In the case of the LPG subsidy, the government has said its appeal to the affluent class to give it up subsidy for the sake of the needy, had resulted in 83 lakh people voluntarily surrendering it over the last year. However, reservation for dalits, tribals and Other Backward Classes is a more sensitive debate, politically. The government and the BJP are likely to keep a distance from it, apparently worried that any statement on its part on lines similar to those of the RSS would be seen as an indication of its rethink on the policy on reservation.

Last weekend in Nagaur, the Sangh's second-in-command Suresh Joshi alias Bhaiyyaji had said that the well-to-do should should not seek reservation. "Those who are prosperous should actually help weaker sections of society. When, instead of this, they ask for reservation for themselves, I think its a lack of understanding of values of Dr BR Ambedkar," he had said after the RSS conclave.

Bhaiyyaji toed the same line as RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, saying thought should be given on whether reservation was going to the most needy. Bhagwat's remarks ahead of the Bihar elections last year had given the BJP's opponents ammunition to attack the party, saying it was anti-reservation.

Bhaiyyaji's comments came amidst the Jat agitation for reservation in BJP-ruled Haryana.

The Samajwadi Party and BSP– two major players in Uttar Pradesh where elections are due in a year– tried to corner the BJP over the RSS views on reservation. In Rajya Sabha, finance minister Arun Jaitley clarified that the government had no plans of reviewing the reservation policy. "It is the stated policy of the government that the present arrangement of reservation will be maintained," Jaitley had said.

Meanwhile, the RSS is understood to be concerned about the political impact of the suicide of Dalit student Rohith Vemula in Hyderabad University. Sources said it has suggested that Dalit MPs reach out to the community to counter any perception that the party was anti-Dalit. RSS leaders had met dalit MPs in the Capital on Wednesday night. The RSS had come out with a resolution on social harmony at Nagaur focusing on eradication of caste-based discrimination and untouchability.