Hours before the Union Cabinet approved 4.5 per cent reservation for minorties within the OBC quota yesterday,newly inducted Civil Aviation Minister and Rashtriya Lok Dal chief Ajit Singh met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to discuss the inclusion of the Jat community in the Central list of Other Backward Classes. The issue later cropped up at the Cabinet meeting. Today,Congress general secretary in charge of UP Digvijay Singh and the RLD chief called on Home Minister P Chidambaram in this connection. It is an old demand. After the RLD came with the Congress,we have jointly met the Home Minister in this connection. He has assured us that he is already on the job and it might happen in the near future, Digvijay Singh told The Indian Express. Mayawati has also written to the PM with the same demand. Jats are classified as a backward caste in many states like Uttar Pradesh,Uttarakhand,Rajasthan and Maharashtra. So why cant they be classified a backward class at the Centre. It is a demand that has been there for a long time and it is a just demand. How come Jats are backward in Noida but not in Delhi? Ajit Singh had said before the meeting. Said Digvijay Singh: Both the RLD and the Congress have supported the demand to include Jats in the central list. The problem is that the Backward Class Commission had rejected this demand. There is no provision for a review but the Home Ministry has amended rules and now it is under review,he said. Congress leaders hope that a Jat-Muslim consolidation will help the Congress,especially in Western UP with about 125 Assembly seats. Today,the Congress released a list of 58 candidates of the three dozen seats in Western UP for which the party declared candidates,nine are Muslim.
