Jat leaders thank Rahul for backing reservation demand

Hundreds of members of the Jat community led by Harayana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Monday met Rahul Gandhi to thank him after the Cabinet asked the backward classes commission to expeditiously take a call on providing reservation to the community in central government jobs.

The Congress vice president came out and greeted the supporters lined up outside his 12 Tuglak lane residence. Apart from Hooda and his son, Congress MP from Rohtak Deepinder Singh Hooda, senior party leader Balram Jakhar was also present. Later, speaking to reporters, the Haryana chief minister said the Cabinet had expressed its opinion over the issue and now the report of the NCBC over the issue will be sought.

"Now, the commission's report will be sought and there is a provision of consultation in the Act. The Cabinet has already expressed its view that Jats have the right to get reservations," Hooda said. Deepinder Singh Hooda said reservation for Jats had been a long-standing demand of people from eight states of Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Uttarakhand and Bihar.

The leaders had on Sunday met Congress President Sonia Gandhi to thank her. The government had last week asked the National Commission for Backward Class to quickly take a call on granting the community reservation in central government jobs. Considering a proposal of the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, the Union Cabinet had held that NCBC should reconsider its 2011 decision in which it had rejected demands for reservation to the community at the central level.

Meanwhile, Veer Pal Singh, All India General Secretary of Jat Arakshan Sangharsh Samiti, alleged that the move was an attempt to misguide the Jat community before the Lok Sabha elections.

Threatening to intensify their stir if no concrete step was taken before January 31, 2014, Singh said in Mathura, "It is an attempt not only to misguide the Jat community, but also to cheat them so that they may vote and support Congress and its ally in the Lok Sabha elections.

"We would intensify our agitation, if, by January 31, 2014, a Gazette Notification for the reservation of Jats is not issued," he said.