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'Quota for poor' stir to gain momentum

By Our Special Correspondent

JAIPUR JULY 15 . The Social Justice Front (SJF), spearheading an agitation in Rajasthan seeking change in the reservation pattern for the Backwards, today served an ultimatum on the Congress and the BJP to provide a definite answer to the issue by July 25. The representatives of the Front, who met here at a "pratinidhi panchayat'', charged that the political parties had been buying time on the pretext of holding talks with them.

``We trusted them when they called us for talks in May. Now we find that they were not serious. Those attempts were mere delay tactics and nothing else,'' said former BJP Minister, Devi Singh Bhati, who is the president of the SJF. "Now we will take to the streets once again. We have come to note that the fire engine comes only when there is fire,'' the maverick leader said.

The SJF had suspended its agitation programme for over a month after the national leaders of the main political parties, the Congress and the BJP, promising to look into their demand which also include a quota for the poor among the forward castes. The leaders of the movement, in the meantime, had met the Deputy Prime Minister, L.K.Advani, the Union Minister, Rajnath Singh, and the BJP general secretary, Pramod Mahajan. They also had a meeting with the Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

In fact, more than the Congress, the BJP needed a respite as the agitators tended to disrupt the meetings of the "Parivartan Yatra'' the BJP president in Rajasthan, Vasundhara Raje had been leading. On his part, the Rajasthan Chief Minister, Ashok Gehlot, initiated a move in May with the State Cabinet passing a resolution recommending 14 per cent reservation to the poor among the forward castes.

The SJF leadership was rather blunt in the memorandum they submitted today to the BJP president as well as the Chief Minister. "It is a paradox that not only you, the Maharani of Dholpur, but also the Maharaja of Bharatpur and his kin are eligible for reservation when the poor citizens who are called `praja' are not,'' the memorandum addressed to Ms.Scindia said.

The separate memorandum to the Chief Minister made it known that no one expected anything to come out of his much publicised gesture of offering reservation to the poor among the communities not yet under reservation.

``Your recommendation surely provoked a national debate on the issue of reservations to poor people. Apart from that nobody thinks that your suggestion would materialize especially after seeing the fate of the Bill for women's reservation in Parliament,'' the SJF memorandum to Mr.Gehlot said.

The SJF leadership did not mince words on the timing of their agitation and their urgency. "We are giving them 10 days. If nothing happens by then we would resort to methods which would make the authorities to sit up and take note,'' Lokendra Singh Kalvi, the coordinator of SJF said. "We will have an answer from the political parties prior to the elections,'' Mr.Kalvi asserted.

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