The politically expendient move of by the Congress-led UPA Government, to extend OBC reservations to the Jats in nine states on the eve of Lok Sabha elections, makes a mockery of the principle of reservations.
The National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC) unanimously rejected the proposal for reservation for Jats, finding that they are “not socially and educationally backward communities”. In fact, the Jats are usually socially dominant communities. To extend OBC reservations to them in blatant disregard for the NCBC recommendations, in the absence of the well-established criteria for social and educational backwardness, is an injustice to other genuinely backward OBC communities, which will now find themselves having to compete for OBC benefits with the more dominant Jat community. The BJP has lost no time in upping the ante and demanding extension of OBC quotas to Jats all over the country, not just in nine states. Such competitive opportunism does deep damage to reservations as a tool of social inclusion and justice.
