New Delhi: The rattled Congress-led UPA at the Centre is planning to extend reservation to the Jats. According to Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari, if the National Backward Classes Commission (NBCC) gets back to the government at the earliest, the reservation could be a reality soon.
However, he dismissed the reports that the Centre is trying to woo the Jats ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. He said, "Not everything can be seen through the lens of election. This demand has been long pending which cabinet has accepted."
Numerically strong, farming community of Jats in 9 North Indian states have been demanding reservation under OBC quota for a long time. Many times, they even staged violent protests in some parts of the north. Jats have a strong presence in Haryana, Delhi, Western UP, Punjab, Rajasthan, MP and some other states in the Hindi speaking areas of the country.
But, the National Backward Classes Commission in its earlier recommendation had refused to give reservation to the Jats in the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category.
The central government is of the view that reservation should be given to the Jats. Since the final call is of NBCC, the Union Cabinet approved a new methodology to collect statistics about Jats, which will be used to convince the NBCC that Jats should be given reservation.
Manish Tewari said, "Cabinet has recommended to NBCC that they take a call at the earliest on demands from 9 states that have sought OBC reservation. Recommendation should be made by the NBCC. The notification will be made by the government. Government goes by the recommendation of NBCC."
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