Centre says no change in quota policy

Leader of the House in Rajya Sabha and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, in response to SP and BSP members raising concern over remarks by some RSS leaders, said, “It is the stated policy of Government that present arrangement of reservation will be maintained.”  

The RSS, Jaitley said, “has also not talked” of scrapping or changing the present reservation policy. Earlier, Ram Gopal Yadav (SP) alleged a conspiracy in doing away with the present reservation system. 

Mayawati (BSP) said the Constitution has clearly defined the criteria for giving reservation to SC/ST and OBCs and now RSS functionaries were talking of the quota being based on economic criteria. She was referring to RSS general secretary Suresh Bhaiyyaji Joshi’s remark at the organisation’s camp at Nagaur in Rajasthan on Sunday.

 Jaitley responded saying “he has not said that.” Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said, “RSS has also called for strengthening reservation, not ending it.”