Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said on Saturday said that reservation will not guarantee employment as jobs are shrinking, adding that there is a “school of thought” which wants policy-makers to consider the poorest of poor in every community.
Gadkari made the statement in Aurangabad, Maharashtra on questioned over ongoing Maratha agitation for reservation.
“Let’s us assume that reservation is given. But there are no jobs. In banks, the jobs have shrunk because of IT. Government recruitment is frozen. Where are the jobs? The problem with quota is that ‘backwardness’ is becoming political. Everyone says ‘I am backward’. In Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, Brahmins are strong. They dominate politics. (And) They say they are backward,” the minister said.
The senior BJP leader spoke about the “school of thought” which regarded that a poor person “has no caste, creed or language,” while another “school of thought” implored that the poorest of the poor must be considered in every community. He said, “So one school of thought is that a poor person is a poor person, he has no caste, creed or language. Whatever may be the religion — the Muslim, the Hindu or the Maratha (a caste), in all communities there is one section which has no clothes to wear, no food to eat.”
However, on Sunday, Gadkari clarified that the government was not thinking of changing the reservation criteria from castes to economic conditions.
My attention has been drawn to certain media reports attributed to me. There is absolutely no thinking at the central government to change the reservation criteria from castes to economic conditions.
— Nitin Gadkari (@nitin_gadkari) August 4, 2018
Urging people to maintain peace, the Union Minister stated that Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis was attempting to resolve the Maratha quota demand by holding talks, the news agency reported.
