Steel and Fertilisers Minister Ram Vilas Paswan on Friday asserted that government would pursue reservation for socially backward classes in the private sector as per commitment made in the Common Minimum Programme.
"CMP is the base of this government. All policies of government will be according to the CMP," Paswan said when asked about the reported assurance by Finance Minister P Chidambaram to captains of Indian industry on Thursday in Mumbai that government would not take affirmative action on reservation in private sector.
In the face of sharp volatility in the stock markets, Chidambaram had visited Mumbai and reportedly told industrialists that government would not legislate reservation in the private sector.
Dismissing the vacillation in the stock markets, Paswan said: "Markets keep going up and down. We don't need to worry so much about it. And when did the finance minister say he does not agree with the CMP?" he added.
Emphasising that reservation in the private sector was necessitated in the wake of privatisation of several PSUs by the previous government, Paswan said: "It is not a question of a particular party. Reservation is a national issue."
Paswan pointed out that even former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had announced his government would pursue reservation in private sector.
He said when he was a minister in the United Front government, he had moved a proposal with regard to reservation in the private sector which still was with the ministry and indicated that it would now be taken up.
The proposal seeks to bring out a legislation on the existing reservation replacing the executive order of the government as also for private sector reservation.
The Lok Janshakti Party of Paswan had proposed legislation on reservation, reservation in private sector and the Dalit Regiment in its manifesto.
Its first two demands have been included in the CMP of the new government, while on the third the party softened its stand in the wake of existing Mahar Regiment as Baba Saheb Ambedkar was also from the same caste.
