Amid Jat quota agitation, a high-powered committee set up by BJP today held deliberations with Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar and weighed various options before it for providing reservation, to which it has agreed in principle.
Sources said the panel, headed by Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu, examined various socio-economic and legal aspects as also the position adopted by previous governments on the vexed issue of Jat reservation during the hour-long meeting.
The committee comprises Union ministers Mahesh Sharma, Sanjeev Baliyan and party leaders Satpal Malik and Avinash Rai Khanna.
Apart from Khattar, Haryana Finance Minister Capt Abhimanyu, whose house was set on fire by protesters some days back, and state Agriculture Minister Om Prakash Dhankar also attended the meeting.
Sources said the meeting discussed the course that the Jat quota agitation has taken in the last few years and sought to ascertain the socially and economically backward communities in the state. They also discussed how courts have reacted on the issue in the past.
BJP had on Sunday night announced the setting up of the committee to examine the quota demand.
BJP MP Raj Kumar Saini, who was served a show-cause notice by his party on Saturday for making comments 'opposing' Jat reservation, today said he was "not opposing" Jat reservation but disapproved of the adoption of "pressure" tactic for the same.
"A committee has been formed... Based on arguments, if they (Jats) deserve reservation, then we will accept it.
"But if someone wants to get reservation by putting pressure, then I would like to say that it is necessary to provide reservation for all 36 communities," Saini had said.
Asked whether he was opposed to Jat reservation, Saini today said, "I have neither opposed Jat reservation earlier, nor am I doing it now. I said it should be done as per the population of each community.
"Nobody's right should be snatched. Where is democracy if there is an attempt to get reservation by applying pressure and snatching others' rights?"
Saini had earlier objected to reservation for Jats and threatened to resign if there was "any loss" in the reservation quota for OBCs, following which Jat protesters had pelted stones at his residence a few days back.
