IANS/New Delhi
A delegation of Jat leaders met Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday after the Supreme Court quashed reservation for the community, an official statement said.
Modi assured the delegation that the Bharatiya Janata Party government was studying the court’s decision and would try to find a solution to the issue within the legal framework, said the statement.
The 70-member delegation from various states sought a review of the March 17 decision by the Supreme Court that struck down a notification of the former Congress government extending reservations to the community in nine states.
The prime minister also urged the Jat leaders to take the lead in implementing the “Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao” (Save girl child, educate girl child) campaign.
The BJP government in Haryana has openly come out in support of job quotas for Jats.
Meanwhile the BJP’s Lok Sabha member from Mathura Hema Malini said the party favoured continuing reservations for Jats in jobs and a review petition with details and factual social profile of the community will be filed afresh in the Supreme Court.
She said she met Modi and party president Amit Shah to discuss the issue.
Malini said the case had not been properly presented in the Supreme Court.
“The prime minister listened to us and promised adequate legal remedial measures would be taken soon,” she said, adding that Jats, like the Gujjars and the Yadavs, deserved reservation as they needed supportive and affirmative action to ensure they advanced socially.
“Let me assure my constituents that I have today tried to convince the prime minister who has given his nod to legal remedy so that the policy of reservations to the Jat community continued.
“The Jats are dear to me as others and I will do everything that benefited them. It is our government and we will do our best for them,” she said.
She referred to recent tour of Mathura constituency by Jayant Choudhary of the Rashtriya Lok Dal, who tried to mobilise Jat support against the BJP government by raking up the issue of reservation for the community, which the court scrapped as unconstitutional.
A Jat delegation meets Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi yesterday.
