Vajpayee woos Rajasthan's Jats
with reservation promise
Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee today declared that the National Democratic Alliance would extend the facility of reservations to Jats, Bishnois, Meos and other communities that have been deprived of it for historical or social reasons.
Addressing a public meeting in Sikar, Rajasthan, Vajpayee said the Centre had received the recommendations of the Other Backward Classes Commission, but they could not be implemented as the Lok Sabha election had been announced.
The prime minister said it was necessary to bring these deprived classes of society into the mainstream. Reservations will cement the feeling of brotherhood and remove class differences, he said.
Vajpayee laid all responsibility for the delay in according OBC status to the Jats and others at the door of the Congress and said that party does not want stability if it is not in power.
Referring to the BJP-led alliance's performance, the prime minister said the Congress was alarmed by its rising popularity and so toppled it.
Vajpayee pointed out that his government was defeated in the Lok Sabha by just one vote. "There were enough sellers in the market, but no buyers were available as the BJP was not interested in the purchase of MPs," he claimed. Only the Congress is in the habit of purchasing Lok Sabha members, he added.
Vajpayee said the intrusion by Pakistani soldiers into Kashmir was because of the Congress's attempts to destabilise the government at the Centre. He praised the armed forces for giving the aggressors a fitting reply and said the country was also able to isolate Pakistan diplomatically.
He had a word of praise for the jawans from Rajasthan who, he said, threw the enemy out of Kargil.
The prime minister declared that the government had made elaborate plans for the families of the Kargil martyrs. Employment for the injured jawans and special employment policies for ex-servicemen are being formulated, he said.
Vajpayee said Rajasthan had remained backward as the infrastructure for education, health and industrial development is insufficient.
Referring to the atrocities on women in the state, he promised special care and protection for them.
He said the Congress was the main hurdle in passing the Women's Reservation Bill.
The prime minister also held the Congress responsible for making Kargil an electoral issue.
He said the Congress leaders who signed the Simla Agreement did not find a solution for the Kashmir issue. Instead, Pakistani land captured by the Indian Army and 93,000 Pakistani prisoners of war were returned without first arriving at a concrete solution.
UNI
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