Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has favoured increasing the 50 per cent reservation in jobs and said the Constitution should be amended if need be. Speaking here on Saturday after being conferred the K Veermani award for 2015, he batted for quota in private sector too.
“It is an era of liberalisation and if quota is not provided in private jobs, it would be a parody of the concept of social justice,” he said. The CM said 50 per cent reservation was not enough to cover the entire society and fulfill the needs of the people eligible for reservation, adding the Constitution be suitably amended to enhance the quota limit.
“The order of the Supreme Court on (50 percent ceiling) reservation is accepted...But there should be discussion on reservation issue...The laid down quota should be increased,” Kumar said, adding, “If population of SC is increasing the quota of reservation should also increase like in Tamil Nadu where it is 69 per cent.”
The laws are made taking into account the prevailing environment at the time.
Nitish also took a dig at the Centre over the unnecessary controversy over chanting of ‘Bharat Mata ki jai’ slogan. He said different people have different slogans like ‘Vande Matram’ and ‘Jai Hind’ and nobody should be forced for any particular slogan.
In an apparent dig at the BJP and Sangh Parivar, Nitish said now they have developed love for the Tricolour. He asked, “Had people no love for the national flag earlierIJ They had, but some people have developed this love recently. Ours love for the Tricolour is old, their new.”
Continuing his tirade against the BJP, he said they are interested only in coining slogans for development but there was no real development. “They coined slogans of Make in India and now coming up with Startup India and Standup India, but people know they will end up with Sit down India and lay down India,” he said.
About his total prohibition policy, Nitish said this had been favoured by Mahatma Gandhi and Jayaprakash Narain and even the law provides for the total ban on alcohol. He asked the boozers to shun this bad habit and invest the booze money on productive things, like health, education and nutrition, and help rewrite the economy of Bihar.
The function was attended by Assembly Speaker Vijay Kumar Choudhary and Council chairman Awadhesh Narain Singh among others. The award to him has been conferred by Periyar International Organisation for work in social justice. Earlier, this award had been given to VP Singh, Sitaram Kesri, M Karunanidhi and Mayawati. The chief guest of the function was Periyar movement leader K Veeramani and those who attended, included CPI leader D Raja, JD(U) general secretary KC Tyagi and Peace Party president Mohammad Ayyub.