Leaders use Jan Morcha platform to propogate reservation

Lucknow, May 30 (UNI) Leaders from various political parties today utilised the platform of former prime minister Vishwanath Pratap Singh's Jan Morcha to speak in favour of reservation.

CPI general secretary A B Bardhan, union ministers Lalu Prasad and Ram Vilas Paswan, Mr Singh and Indian Justice Party chief Udit Raj were the main speakers on the occasion to speak in favour of reservation and farmers' rights.

Mr Paswan said fight for change was the basic aim of Jan Morcha, under which leaders from a broad spectrum had gathered.

Speaking on the quota issue, Mr Paswan defended more seats for the backwards by claming children from such background too required a launch pad to fulfill their dreams. He disagreed with people who suggested that reservation would muzzle merit. ''Southern states are more prosperous as there is more reservation,'' he noted.

He also charged the BJP with cheating the people on the issue of construction of Ram Temple at Ayodhya. ''They were in power for seven yrs...still they could not get the temple constructed,'' he wondered.

Mr Bardhan slammed the corporate world for inciting anti-reservation activists. ''When more seats for the OBCs would be introduced from next yr, the seats for the general category would be increased simultaneously...then what is the quarrel about?'' Defending reservation, he said the backwards who would gain from reservation too had merit, and suggestions that merit would suffer following reservation were unfounded. The CPI leader took on the media for ignoring the programmes of pro-reservation activists.

Speaking for the rights of the poor, he said why could not governments in other states provide rice to people at the rate of Rs two per kg, like Tamil Nadu has done. ''The proposed hike in fuel prices would also create problems for the people.'' While various leaders spoke on uniting for a prolonged fight, activists of the various parties were not comfortable sharing space with each other. There were frequent brawls between various groups over space. Several senior leaders present on the stage maintained that the grassroots workers should also unite if they wanted to see their fight bear fruits.

Meanwhile, the ruling Samajwadi Party termed the rally as ''imported.'' Senior SP leader and former UNion minister Beni Prasad Verma said the rally had imported leaders and supporters.

He claimed the united face shown by the leaders present was very superficial.

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