Review of quota system: Govt must call special session of Parliament if it is serious, says Sharad Yadav
Janata Dal-United (JDU) chief Sharad Yadav.
Janata Dal-United (JDU) chief Sharad Yadav on Thursday dared the Centre to hold a special session of Parliament to discuss caste-based reservation if it was serious about a review of the current quota system.
While speaking to the media, Yadav said, “If the Centre is serious, it should call a special session of Parliament only to discuss the issue of eradication of the caste system in India. Till the caste system is prevalent, no one on earth can remove and review the existing reservation policy in the country.”
“Let everybody take a position on the issue of reservation in Parliament,” Yadav said, making light of the suggestion of RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat that an expert committee should look in to the implementation of the quota policy till date.
“Is any committee above the Constitution?,” the JD(U) chief asked, while pointing out that only Parliament had the power to look in to the issue of reservation. Caste, according to him, was a reality and the matter (of OBC reservations) had been “settled in 1991 consequent to the implementation of recommendations of the Mandal Commission”. “No one can review and remove” the existing reservation policy till the caste system was prevalent in India,” he added.
Regarding the BJP’s attempts to distance itself from Bhagwat’s remarks, Yadav said the BJP had raked up the Ram Temple issue soon after the VP Singh government announced the implementation of Mandal Commission recommendations. “It was nothing but a covert attempt to oppose reservation,” Yadav said, insisting that “now the BJP is distancing itself from Bhagwat’s remarks due to political reasons but it has a track record of opposing reservation”.
The JD (U) chief maintained that development was the poll-plank of his party. When asked if he shared RJD chief Lalu Prasad’s opinion that the current Bihar election was a contest between forward and backward castes, Yadav said this was “in the context to Bhagwat’s remarks”.
Yadav called upon the BJP to stop raising the quota issue, failing which other castes too will start demanding reservations before every election. He felt that had the government fulfilled its promise of providing employment to two crore young people, the reservation issue would not have cropped up at all.
