Jaipur: Former minister and dissident BJP MLA Ghanshyam Tiwari said the Government and Gujjar leaders reaching an agreement to increase the OBC quota from 21 to 26 and then having a 5% quota for the Gujjar and four other castes under a sub-category within OBC is not only a betrayal of Gujjars but also the other OBCs in the state.

He said, under this new formulation also Reservation will again breach the 50% ceiling set by the Supreme Court and the court again likely to strike down the legislation. And this time not only the Gujjar and but all the castes in the OBC had to bear the brunt.

In May this year, the state government had issued a notification to re-include five castes of Gujjar/Gurjar, Banjara/Baldia/Labana, Gadia-Lohar/Gadalia, Raika/Rebari and Gadaria (Gaadri), in the OBC list after state High Court in December last year struck down the Special Backward Class (SBC) Reservation Act, 2015, which provided special backward class status to these five castes.

Tiwari asked on the state government to clear its stand on the 14 % economically backward reservation it had promised. Under Tiwari the BJP government had come out with the formula of 5 special backward classes (SBCs) reservation to the Gujjar and four other castes and 14 % reservation to the economically backward classes to end the violent Gujjar reservation agitation. But the government did not act on the 14% EBCs till now while the court had declared the 5% reservation under the SBC illegal.

He said now both in the state and the Centre, BJP is in power and the government should amend the constitution to provide 14% reservation to the EBCs without disturbing the reservation to the other castes which will result in social harmony. He said this legislation should be put in the IXth Schedule so that it will be outside the purview of judicial scrutiny.

The BJP government in its election manifesto (Suraj Sankalp patru) had also promised that the party will provide 14% reservation to the economically weaker classes. But as far as I understand the state government had not even taken up this matter with the centre, he said.