Quota for Jats certain, leaders opposing it can quit party: BJP

Sunit Dhawan

Tribune News Service

Garhi Sampla (Rohtak), Nov 24

Union Minister of State for Agriculture Sanjeev Balyan has said the BJP government was certain on providing Jats with reservation under the OBC category and leaders who had any objection to the move were free to leave the party.

“Some leaders are trying to further their vested political interests by instigating people in the name of caste and community,” he told the media at a function organised on the birth anniversary of late farmer leader Chhotu Ram here today.

Balyan did not name anybody, but he was apparently targeting BJP MP from Kurukshetra Raj Kumar Saini, who has been opposing reservation to Jats.

On being pointed out Saini was a BJP leader, Balyan said such leaders did not belong to any party and represented the ilk of “ayarams” and “gayarams”.

Earlier, the Union Minister said all was not well with Haryana as “hot airs” were blowing in the state and were affecting western Uttar Pradesh. He urged Union Minister for Rural Development Birender Singh, who was sitting on the dais, to control the situation.

Birender, who is a grandson of Chhotu Ram, meanwhile, laid the foundation stone of a 64-foot statue of the late leader at his native village to mark his 134th birth anniversary. The statue will cost around Rs 2 crore.

In his address, Birender advised the people not to get misled by political leaders promising to provide government jobs to their sons and daughters. “Farmers of Haryana are backward as compared with their counterparts in Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat.”

“Instead of hankering for government jobs, farmers, agricultural labourers and other members of the rural community must learn to utilise loans provided by banks and start their own business so as to improve their lot,” he said.

Haryana BJP general secretary-cum-Rohtak MLA laid the foundation stone of a statue of Chhotu Ram at a stadium named after the late leader here.