OBC Quota Justified But Cong Responsible for Current Fiasco: Uma

Madurai, May 16 (UNI) Justifying reservations for the OBCs, Bharatiya Janshakti Party president and former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Uma Bharti today held the Congress solely responsible for the current fiasco.

Addressing mediapersons here this evening, Ms Bharti, who is currently on a Yatra from Rameswaram to Kedarnath, questioned the sincerity of the Congress and Union HRD Minister Arjun Singh in particular in implementing the OBC quota.

In her opinon, Mr Singh had come up with the quota idea to ensure the victory of Congress President Sonia Gandhi in Rae Bareily. As such, neither the HRD Minister nor the Congress could claim the credit for bringing the OBC reservations on the national agenda, she observed adding that quota has been used as a plain political gimmick.

At the same breadth, she appealed to the striking medicos and students to give up their protests, realising the need for reservation for the disadvantaged communities and considering the prevailing age-old disparities in the villages. Refusing to buy the argument that the protests were orchestrated by vested interests, she said the medicos could not be 'considered as puppets'.

However, she called for a wider political debate when specifically asked about bringing the institutions of higher education within the ambit of OBC reservation.

Demanding extension of reservation to the private sector, she cautioned that unemployment was emerging as the biggest threat to the country. ''We are not creating jobs and in a few years there would not be any job in the Government sector,'' she pointed out.

Neither have the self employment programmes met with any spectacular success, she noted. In these circumstances, it was necessary to have reservations in the private sector also, Ms Bharti added.

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