Gadkari gets a pat from Rahul

Every Indian is asking the same question, tweets the Congress President

Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Monday complimented Union Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari for asking the question ‘where are the jobs’ despite being part of the Modi government.

“Excellent question Gadkari ji. Every Indian is asking the same question,” Rahul tweeted on Gadkari’s frank admission in a chat with reporters in Aurangabad and Maharashtra.

Replying a question about the agitation for reservation to Marathas in Maharashtra, Gadkari had said: “Let’s us assume the reservation is given. But there are no jobs. Because in banks, the jobs have shrunk because of IT. The government recruitment is frozen. Where are the jobs?”

He also said that the problem with the quota is that the "backwardness is becoming a political interest".

Gadkari said that one school of thought is that "a poor is poor, he has no caste, creed or language. Whatever may be the religion..., in all communities there is one section which has no clothes to wear, no food to eat".

Whereas the other school of thought is "we must also consider the poorest of the poor section in every community".

This is a "socio-economic thinking" and it must not be politicised, he added. In a tweet late on Sunday, Gadkari also clarified that the government is not planning to change the criteria for reservation from "castes to economic conditions".