NDA will review reservation, says JD(U) MP

Patna, Oct 14: Rejecting Prime Minister Narendra Modi's stand that the reservation policy for OBCs and SC/STs will stay, the grand secular alliance today claimed that the NDA government would indeed review the quota system on the directive of RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat.

"Bhagwat has been quoted in Gorakhpur two days ago saying that he stands by his remarks for review of existing reservation policy by a non-political body to assess whether the affirmative steps have worked...it is not one or twice that the RSS chief has spoken on the issue, but he has done so for three times," JD(U) Rajya Sabha MP Pavan Verma said.

In fact, the RSS chief took the stand for review of the quota system on a day when the Prime Minister himself had spoken for the first time on the issue at an event in Mumbai where he had unequivocally stood in favour of the existing reservation policy, Verma said.

In the backdrop of Bhagwat's persistent demand for review of the reservation policy and that too by an apolitical committee, whatever the Prime Minister and his ministerial colleagues say backing the quota system amounted to nothing, the JD(U) leader said.

Echoing Verma's view, Congress spokesperson Ajay Kumar criticised the RSS and BJP for being antagonistic to reservation policy right from the time it was conceived in the constitution and always advocated for quota on the basis of economic condition of the people.

RJD spokesperson Manoj Jha also criticised the Prime Minister for his failure to outrightly condemn the RSS chief for his repeated assertion in favour of review of the reservation policy otherwise there was a serious threat to continuance of the quota system under the NDA government.

Jha demanded an increase in the quota limit beyond the existing 50 per cent in consistence with the growth in population of the OBCs and dalits at an estimated 52.5 per cent as per the latest census.

He took a dim view of Modi's breaking silence over Dadri lynching and said that if he really felt so then he should have cracked whips against BJP MLA Sangeet Som and other fringe elements in his party. Kumar claimed that there had been 300 per cent increase in communal incidents since the NDA came to power at the centre last year.

PTI