Jakhar to ask MLAs, MPs to back move

Thursday, 14/06/2012

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2012/20120614/punjab.htm#5

The Punjab Congress today decided to take up the demand for inclusion of Jat Sikhs in the Other Backward Castes (OBC) category to the next level with Congress Legislature Party leader Sunil Jakhar saying the party would ask MLAs and MPs from the state to petition the Home minister and the PM on the issue.

While the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) is yet to form an opinion on the issue, the state Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the CPI are not too enthusiastic about the proposal in its present form.

Jakhar said he had decided to take up the issue of reservation for Jat Sikhs as he felt that the Sikhs should not be excluded from this benefit only because nobody was taking up their case. The Congress leader said Chidambaram had assured a delegation of Congress leaders that the Jat Sikhs would be brought under the ambit of the OBC reservation list in case the National Commission for Backward Castes (NCBC) recommended so. The Congress initiative on the issue will force the SAD to take a stand. The latter has been lukewarm to the demand despite an agitation on the issue in Rajasthan and Haryana. Party spokesman Dr Daljit Singh Cheema, when asked, said casteism was hardly practiced in Punjab, indicating the party may not be in favour of reservation for the Jat Sikhs in the State. He, however, said the party would discuss the issue before taking a decision.

Dr Joginder Dayal of the CPI said the demand needed to be thoroughly discussed as it was against the concept of a secular body polity. He said reservation benefits had not percolated down to the needy in the past.

State BSP president Avtar Singh Karimpuri said party chief Mayawati had earlier written to the PM in favour of reservation for the Jats in her state. He said the party would not form part of any deputation led by the Congress on the issue. Karimpuri said the OBC quota should be increased to accommodate the ‘jat bhaichara’. He said the OBC, who formed 52 per cent of the country’s population, had only 27 per cent reservation in educational institutions and recruitment. In such a situation, even if the Jat Sikhs in Punjab were placed on the OBC list, they might not get any benefit in the real terms.

New Delhi: Former president of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) Varinder Kataria said: “I do not think the Jats in Punjab or Haryana need the crutches of reservation. They are prosperous and have done well without such a policy ”. A BJP leader from Punjab said: “ I do not think the Jat Sikhs will accept the OBC status”.

He recalled how another prosperous community was included in Punjab’s OBC list and there was an adverse reaction to the move by its community leaders.