New Delhi, Apr 22 (PTI) The Congress on Monday alleged that the BJP's "400 paar" slogan is aimed at changing the Constitution and ending the reservation for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and backward classes.

Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh claimed the truth behind the "400 paar" slogan is that Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants to change Babasaheb Ambedkar's Constitution.

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"This issue is being raised through proxies. He (Modi) does not say it himself but several others keep saying it. What is the basic feature of Babasaheb Ambedkar's Constitution -- social justice and social empowerment and reservation for SCs (Scheduled Castes), STs (Scheduled Tribes) and backward classes according to their population. To end this, the '400 paar' (slogan) is being raised," Ramesh said in a video statement.

Earlier, Ramesh stepped up his attack on the prime minister over his "distribution of wealth" remarks in Rajasthan.

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"The prime minister speaks in a poisonous language on a whole lot of issues. He should also answer a simple question -- since 1951, census has been conducted every 10 years. This reveals the actual data of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe population. This should have been done in 2021 but has not been done till date. Why is the prime minister silent on this?" Ramesh said in a post on X.

This is a conspiracy to destroy the Constitution of Babasaheb Ambedkar, he alleged.

The Congress stepped up its attack on the prime minister after he suggested that the party would redistribute the wealth of people to Muslims if it comes to power and cited former prime minister Manmohan Singh's remark that the minority community had the first claim on the country's resources.

Addressing a rally in Rajasthan's Banswara, Modi alleged the Congress' plans to give people's hard-earned money and valuables to "infiltrators" and "those who have more children".

The Congress on Monday said Modi has several new tactics for diverting attention from the real issues but the end of the "business of lies" is near.

Late on Sunday, it had hit back at Modi over his remarks, saying after facing "disappointment" in the first phase of the Lok Sabha polls, the prime minister has resorted to "lies" and "hate speech" to divert people from the real issues.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)