LJP to Launch Nationwide Agitation on OBC Quota Issue
Aurangabad, Maharashtra: April 13, 2007
Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) president and Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan is doing what he does best – promising to launch nationwide agitation to press for reservation in private companies and in judiciary that had so far remained untouched from such political gimmickry.
While at a function to honor the socialist leader Dr. B. Ambedkar in Aurangabad in Maharashtra on Friday, Paswan said he would soon announce the date for agitation that would be designed to put pressure on the nation to implement reservations in court appointments and private enterprises.
The LJP leader, in a carefully crafted statement, accused the Judiciary of being biased against dalits and backwards. "The lack of backward class judges is affecting many cases," he said in a veiled criticism of the judiciary.
Paswan, who has played the caste-class card to drum up support for himself throughout his political career, blasted the Supreme Court for putting a stay on the 27% quota for Other Backward Castes (OBCs) in institutions of higher learning.
In the backdrop of the ongoing Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, Paswan once again resorted to caste-based rhetoric accusing Mayawati of becoming the party of upper castes. "The Bahujan Samaj Party has become the Brahmin Samaj Party," the LJP leader, who is probably the only one to get away with such blatant communal statements without fear of reprisal, said.
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