Kejriwal writes to Modi, seeks inclusion of Jats in central OBC list

New Delhi

In the run-up to the Delhi Assembly elections, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convener Arvind Kejriwal asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to include Delhi’s Jat community in the Centre’s OBC (other backward classes) list, providing them reservations in education and jobs, and alleged that the BJP-led central government reneged on its promise in this regard multiple times.

Leaders of the Delhi unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), however, questioned Kejriwal’s “sudden Jat love”, alleging it was an election gimmick. BJP candidate from New Delhi and former MP Parvesh Verma said Kejriwal’s “political ground was slipping” after which he has “started dividing Delhi on caste lines.”

Discussing the written communique, sent a day earlier, in a press conference at the AAP headquarters on Thursday, Kejriwal said the Jat community figured on the Delhi government’s OBC list.

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“When children from Delhi’s Jat community seek admission to Delhi University, they do not receive reservation benefits. In universities under the Delhi government, the Jat community of Delhi gets reservation, but when they apply for jobs in central government institutions, such as Delhi Police and DDA, they do not get reservation benefits,” Kejriwal said at a press conference at AAP headquarters.

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Political parties estimate that Delhi has a Jat population of over 800,000, who hold the sway in at least eight key constituencies of Najafgarh, Nangloi Jat, Narela, Mehrauli, Bijwasan, Bawana, Matiala, Mundka and Palam.

The AAP chief pointed out that the Jat community from Rajasthan figured in the central government’s OBC list and they receive reservation benefits in Delhi. “However, the Jat community from Delhi is denied reservation in the same Delhi University colleges. This is grave injustice inflicted upon people of Delhi’s Jat community. This injustice is akin to rubbing salt into their wounds,” Kejriwal said.

“It is interesting that people from Rajasthan’s Jat community get reservation benefits in Delhi Police, NDMC, DDA, Safdarjung Hospital, and AIIMS, while Jats from Delhi do not. Why is this the case? Delhiites do not receive reservations in Delhi, but outsiders do—why such discrimination?” Kejriwal said.

Delhi BJP leader and south Delhi MP Ramvir Singh Bidhuri accused Kejriwal of continuously neglecting Delhi’s rural areas and people of all castes “including Jats hate him”.

In the communique to Modi, Kejriwal wrote: “The central government’s discriminatory attitude toward the Jat community and five other OBC communities in Delhi is preventing their youth from accessing proper opportunities... the central government must immediately ensure that all communities granted OBC status by the Delhi government receive reservation benefits in central government institutions in Delhi. I await your response.”

BJP’s Bidhuri said that the BJP government in Delhi in 1993 had given reservations to Jats and questioned Kejriwal on how many youths from the community were provided government jobs in the past 10 years.

Bidhuri said: “There are about 200 villages of Jats in Delhi, where most of the people are dependent on agriculture, but the stepmotherly treatment that Kejriwal has meted out to farmers of Delhi is not hidden from anyone. The farmers of these villages want to ask Kejriwal that why did he not allow the farmer welfare schemes of Modi ji’s government at the Centre to be implemented in Delhi?”

“Why did he not provide electricity to farmers for farming at cheap rates while farmers of Haryana get this facility? Commercial rates of electricity are charged from the farmers of Delhi. Why did he declare tractor a commercial vehicle in Delhi? Why did he not increase the compensation amount of the acquired land to the farmers and why did he stop the scheme of alternative residential plots in lieu of acquired land?” Bidhuri said.

Delhi Congress functionary and former chairman of Delhi government’s Commission of OBC Chattar Singh said: “On the initiative of Congress chief Sonia Gandhi in 2013, the then central government had included Jats of Delhi in the national OBC list through a notification issued on 04.04.2013. When the government changed in 2014, the BJP government went to the Supreme Court and got inclusion of Jats in the OBC list rejected. Both AAP and BJP are anti-Jat.”