NDA will review quota, says JD(U) leader Pavan Verma

PATNA / NEW DELHI: The politics of reservation continued to play out in Bihar with the Janata Dal (United) claiming on Wednesday that the NDA government would review the caste-based reservations on the directive of RSS Sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat.

PM Modi had said two days ago in Mumbai that there was no move to review the reservation policy for OBCs and SC/STs but the issue was raked up fresh after media reports from Gorakhpur quoted Bhagwat as saying on Tuesday that he stood by his remarks on reservations.

“Bhagwat has been quoted in Gorakhpur that he stands by his remarks for review of existing reservation policy by a non-political body to assess whether the affirmative steps have worked...it is not once or twice that the RSS chief has spoken on the issue, but he has done so for three times,” JD(U) Rajya Sabha MP Pavan Verma said in Patna.

The RSS chief repeated his call for review of the quota system after Modi unequivocally stood in favour of the existing reservation policy, Verma said.

In the back drop o f Bhagwat’s persistent demand for review of the reservation policy, and that too by an apolitical committee, whatever the prime minister and his ministerial colleagues say backing the quota system amounted to nothing, the JD(U) leader claimed.