BJP accuses govt of 'ignoring' Jat reservation issue

The issue of Jat agitation for reservation on Monday had its echo in the Rajya Sabha with the BJP accusing the government of "going back on its promise" and "ignoring" the issue.

Raising the matter during Zero Hour, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi (BJP) said the agitation, which had brought lakhs of people on the streets in 2011 is again back from March 5 this year and protests are taking place in a number of states including Delhi, Punjab and Haryana.

He said agitators have come to Jantar Mantar in the national capital but the government remains totally unbothered about it.

Naqvi said that at the peak of the Jat agitation in 2011, then Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal had given an assurance that government will consider the issue positively.

"The government had then set up a committee of ministers. The committee gave its suggestions but the government was yet to accept them...the government had then said that it will consider the issue positively but did not," Naqvi rued.

Demanding reservation in government jobs, the Jat community has been holding agitation for many years. The recent agitation, whose central point is Haryana, has now spread to Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab.