PM meets Jat delegation, assures solution on quota issue

Vibha Sharma

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 26

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has promised a solution within the legal framework in the wake of the Supreme Court scrapping reservation for Jats.

(See Video: Jat leaders meet PM Modi, demand for reservation)

“The Prime Minister listened carefully to the issues raised by the delegation. He said the government is studying the Supreme Court decision and will try to find a solution to the issue within the legal framework,” the PMO statement said.

The Prime Minister also urged the delegation to take the lead in implementing the Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao Abhiyan.

The apex court had recently scrapped reservation for the Jat community under the OBC community given by the UPA government in nine states, thus landing the BJP-led NDA in a political situation.

Notably, the court also slammed the Centre's decision to overlook the finding of an OBC panel that Jat is not a backward class.

For the BJP this has resulted in the proverbial Catch 22-situation.

Jats occupy a preeminent position in Haryana, western Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Delhi and eastern Rajasthan, constituting the largest group in north-western India. The land owning community, which is believed to be upset over their leaders losing place of prominence in the political spectrum of the region, is also upset over the controversial amendments that the BJP-led NDA is trying to bring to the Land Acquisition Bill.

However, their cutting into the OBC pie is something which had not gone down well with the members of other communities in the list, enjoying reservation’ benefits for years. Other OBCs also constitute an equally formidable vote bank in the two states high on the BJP's wish list — Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.

Meanwhile, Haryana Agriculture Minister OP Dhankar, who was part of the delegation, said that the Jat community should be given benefits that Ahir and Gujjar community were enjoying. The delegation demanded that the benefits which Jat community had been getting in admissions and jobs should not be withdrawn, he said.

The delegation also met BJP president Amit Shah, who too said that the party was contemplating several options, including “constitutional”, to resolve the issue. Battling “anti-farmer” perception due to the new Land Acquisition Bill, the BJP will soon make its stand on the issue public. “We are trying to pursue the matter constitutionally. We will soon make the party’s stand clear on the issue,” party sources say.

Jat leaders have already apprised the top leadership of “adverse effects” of the apex court’s orders on the community and grass roots across Haryana, Punjab, Western UP and Rajasthan. Sources say the Jat leaders also told Shah about the underlying anger in the community in Haryana after anointment of “a non-Jat as the Chief Minister”, the “after-effect of which felt in the Delhi Assembly elections where the community completely turned against the saffron party”.

Elections in Haryana may still be five years away but the community constitutes more than 17 per cent of the population in Western UP—a state that ranks highest on the BJP’s wish list. The community might feel alienated if nothing concrete is seen to be done about it, they say. Sources say Shah has also been “warned” by the party's ideological fountainhead—the RSS—against the "disconnect" with workers and grass roots and asked him to strengthen party base in poll-bound Bihar and UP.