Jat reservation: MP threatens to quit over cut in quota for OBCs

CHANDIGARH: A BJP MP from Haryana has threatened to resign from Parliament if there was any loss to the reservation quota to other backward classes, even as swords are out in the open between those supporting the OBC quota for jats and those opposing it.
Hailing the last month's Supreme Court verdict for setting aside a 2014 notification to include jats in OBC list in nine states, Kurukshetra MP Raj Kumar Saini said, "What is the point of having reservation for OBCs if there is any loss to the quota, then one may as well scrap the reservation to the OBCs."
"From time to time, various commissions, including the B P Mandal, have not considered them (the jats) equivalent to OBC, in terms of being educationally, politically or economically backward," Saini said over phone on Sunday.
"Even during Bansi Lal government's time (in Haryana in mid 1990s), when I felt that injustice was being done to the backwards, I raised my voice...I am not into politics just to fulfill narrow interests. I don't have any greed to hang on to power and I can step down to fight for the rights of the backwards," Saini said.
Saini said despite Supreme Court's ruling, jats were trying to build pressure. "If the jats manage to get reservation by putting pressure on the government, it may lead to a revolt in the country. They just want to put pressure, then what is the point of democracy and courts," he argued.
Saini further said, "The backward caste people supported Prime Minister Narendra Modi en bloc during the elections." He said that a function of the backward classes was held in Gohana in Sonipat on Sunday, in which various speakers have endorsed that jats were only trying to build pressure on the government.
Notably, the NDA government, has said it has the powers under the Constitution to include jats in the central list of Other Backward Classes (OBC) and sought a review of Supreme Court's decision to scrap quota for the community.
The Centre had moved the court days after a jat delegation met PM Modi, who assured the community leaders that his regime would try to find a solution within the legal framework.
Senior leader of Haryana's main opposition party, Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), Abhay Chautala, has favoured reservation for jats. "Jat is a farmer, he is dependent on agriculture. Today farmers are facing hardships, holdings have gone down, what is wrong if he gets reservation," Chautala said.
Prominent jat leader from Haryana, Hawa Singh Sangwan, said that Saini had no locus standi to speak against reservation to jats. "Who is Saini to say all this? We have been struggling for years to get reservation and have been fighting for our right. It is for the government or the courts to take a view, why should people like Saini poke their nose," Sangwan said. pti