Congress leader Rahul Gandhi claimed on Monday that it was in the ‘DNA’ of the Bharatiya Janata Party and its ideological parent, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, to try to get rid of reservations, PTI reported. Gandhi also said the Congress will not allow the BJP to do away with reservations.

“We will not allow reservation to be done away with, no matter how much Modiji [Prime Minister Narendra Modi] or [RSS chief] Mohan Bhagwat dream of it,” Gandhi told reporters outside Parliament. “The RSS and the BJP cannot stand the idea that Dalits, tribals and Other Backward Classes have reservations.”

The former Congress president’s rhetoric was a response to the BJP government in Uttarakhand contending in the Supreme Court last week that there was no fundamental right to claim reservations for promotions in government jobs. The state government had also argued that states cannot be obliged to provide reservations as a constitutional duty.

On February 7, the Supreme Court upheld the Uttarakhand government’s argument. The top court said it cannot compel states to provide quotas, and that states cannot be forced to make such provisions, unless data shows imbalance in representation for certain groups in government service.

Gandhi claimed on Monday that reservation, which is granted by the Constitution of India, irks the BJP and RSS when they “wake up every morning”. “The main thing is that there is an assault on the Constitution,” Gandhi said. “All institutions are being destroyed, we are not allowed to speak in Parliament and judiciary is pressured. So institutional structures are being destroyed and the main pillars of our Constitution taken down one by one.”