How Centre pushed through Jat quota

NEW DELHI: Desperate to push reservation for the Jats ahead of the crucial Lok Sabha polls, the UPA government overturned the National Commission for Backward Classes ( NCBC)’s latest recommendation that rejected the demand to include the community in the Central List of Other Backward Classes.

The Jat population in India is believed to be around 8.25 crore and their dense presence in Western Uttar Pradesh affects almost 10 Lok Sabha seats. Other states like Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh too have significant Jat population and they already enjoy OBC status in these states.

On Monday, the NCBC made public its latest recommendations, submitted on February 26 to the government. It concluded: “the Jats are not socially and educationally backward communities” in the nine states.

A senior minister, however, told HT that the Union cabinet decided to look the other way as “nine states have already got Jats on their OBC list. So it was only natural that Jats from these nine states come on to the central list.” He also pointed out that “it is the government’s prerogative” to decide on classbased reservation.

A day after the Union cabinet approved reservation for Jats, the Gujjars sought a similar reservation for their community saying they were economically and socially more backward than Jats. Rajasthan Gujjar leader Kirori Singh Bainsla said, “Our demands are more than genuine. Union minister Sachin Pilot has promised us reservation but nothing has been done so far.”

Ironically, the Centre had changed rules three years ago to allow the commission to relook at the whole issue of Jat reservation after its earlier report rejected the demand.

The proposal cleared by the cabinet would make the community eligible for 27% reservation in government jobs and higher educational institutions in nine states -- Haryana, Gujarat, Delhi, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar.