Chandigarh, March 5.
The National Scheduled Castes Alliance (NSCA) today welcomed the
decision by the Akali Dal-BJP government to declare the Jats and Jat
Sikhs of Punjab as Backward Classes (BCs) thus making them eligible
for quota in the state and central government jobs.
"The Akali Dal had not brought this proposal to declare the Jats and
Jat Sikhs as BCs because the party felt that it would lower the status
of the Jat Sikhs. So the step had been taken at the last minute before
the model code of conduct comes into play as they feared the issue
could be used by the Congress to influence the vote bank.
Even though
Parkash Singh Badal had been Chief Minister for five terms, it is an
irony that he could do nothing to empower the Jat Sikh community to
which he himself belonged. The Akali-BJP government had not even
formed the state Backward Classes Commission," said Paramjit Singh
Kainth, president of the NSCA.
"It is because of this caste bias -which includes the Scheduled
Castes-- that the Akali Dal had not even implemented the Mandal
Commission report which had declared 27 per cent reservation for
Backward Classes. The Akali Dal leadership is actually not letting SC
and BC leaders from emerging and getting empowered," said Kainth.
Describing the Punjab govt. decision as a desperate bid at catching
the quota bus the state had missed after the Union Cabinet in its last
meeting granting OBC status to Jats and Jat Sikhs, Kainth stated "it
is a pity that the Akali-BJP combine lacks vision. They act only when
forced to by the compulsion of vote bank politics. Voluntarily they
would not like to take any step that strengthens the SCs and OBCs,"
Kainth added.