Panel on Jat quota issue meets, weighs various options

NEW DELHI: The high-powered committee, set up by BJP on Jat reservation issue, today held consultations with Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar and weighed various options for providing quota to them "without compromising with the rights of other communities".

"We deliberated various options on how to provide quota to the Jats as promised and intended in a way that it is not stuck down by the court as has happened in the past. Care has to be taken that other communities also do not feel hurt.

"We are committed to Jat reservation and will find a way out to do it," said a member of the committee on the condition of anonymity.

The concern is understandable as non-Jat voters have played a key role in BJP's victory in Haryana polls and as such the party cannot antagonize those sections.

Sources said the panel, headed by Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu, examined various socio-economic and legal aspects as also the position adopted by previous governments on the vexed issue of Jat reservation during the hour-long meeting.

The committee comprises Union ministers Mahesh Sharma, Sanjeev Baliyan and party leaders Satpal Malik and Avinash Rai Khanna.

Apart from Khattar, Haryana Finance Minister Capt Abhimanyu, whose house was set on fire by protesters some days back, and state Agriculture Minister Om Prakash Dhankar also attended the meeting.

Sources said the meeting discussed the course that the Jat quota agitation has taken in the last few years and sought to ascertain the socially and economically backward communities in the state. They also discussed how courts have reacted on the issue in the past.

An effort was made in the past during Congress Chief Bhupinder Singh Hooda's tenure to provide reservation to Jats under Backward Class category but that was struck down by the courts.

There is a view that the option can be re-exercised with some modifications to avoid it being scrapped by the courts.

BJP had on Sunday night announced the setting up of the committee to examine the quota demand.

BJP MP Raj Kumar Saini, who was served a show-cause notice by his party on Saturday for making comments 'opposing' Jat reservation, today said he was "not opposing" Jat reservation but disapproved of the adoption of "pressure" tactics for the same.

"A committee has been formed... Based on arguments, if they (Jats) deserve reservation, then we will accept it.

"But if someone wants to get reservation by putting pressure, then I would like to say that it is necessary to provide reservation for all 36 communities," Saini had said.

Asked whether he was opposed to Jat reservation, Saini today said, "I have neither opposed Jat reservation earlier, nor am I doing it now. I said it should be done as per the population of each community.

"Nobody's right should be snatched. Where is democracy if there is an attempt to get reservation by applying pressure and snatching others' rights?"