The Hindu : `Gehlot playing politics of quota'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, May 30, 2003

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`Gehlot playing politics of quota'

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI MAY 29. Giving a new turn to the recently triggered debate on providing reservation for the economically backward upper castes, the Justice Party chief, Udit Raj, suggested that reservation be fixed for all castes, proportionate to population.

Maintaining that reservation was not going to be the panacea for the plethora of problems, he suggested at a press conference that the real solution lay in providing equal and compulsory education for all and the elimination of the caste system.

Mr. Raj alleged that the Rajasthan Chief Minister, Ashok Gehlot, "played politics of reservation" and the BJP too grabbed the opportunity to recommend the setting up of a national commission to identify the criteria to give reservation to the poor among the upper castes.

"The most pertinent question arises whether the poor among the untouchables and the upper castes are equally placed. Is a poor Brahmin ready to enter into marital relationship with a poor Dalit? Are high caste poor not allowed access to temples, wells and ponds? Are their houses being burned? Here lies the difference between the poor of upper castes and untouchables," he said.

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