Devendra Fadnavis dubs reservation in govt jobs useless, claims consciousness of caste identity encourages demand for quota

Practically contradicting his own government’s move to grant reservation to Maratha community, Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday said that quotas was useless for most people, media reports said. Fadnavis was speaking at the inaugural session of the 16th Jagatik Marathi Sammelan (global Marathi convention). [caption id=“attachment_5080451” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis. PTI[/caption] Responding to a query about caste and reservation, the chief minister said: “It is true that consciousness about caste identity owes a lot to reservation but reservation is helpful only for job opportunities provided by the government. And such opportunities are only 10 percent of the total. Once the younger generation realises this, consciousness about caste identity will wither away to a great extent.” Earlier in December, the Maharashtra government had granted 16 percent reservation to the Maratha community, fulfilling a long-standing demand which saw violent clashes and state-wide protests. Apart from this, the Maharashtra government has also said that they might consider granting reservation benefits to backward communities among Muslims. According to reports, he also said that there were “few” government jobs and “90 percent people didn’t get them”. Fadnavis added, “Recently, we decided to recruit 25,000 people but these many employable youths can be found in a single taluka. So how will it help the majority? There are far more private educational institutes than government ones. However, there is no job reservation in private colleges and schools.” He was confident that India will vote a Maharashtrian to the prime minister’s post by 2050. The chief minister was asked whether India will see a Maharashtrian prime minister by 2050. “Why not, of course we will see…If anyone has really ruled India, entire India, in a real sense, it is the Maharashtrians, and we have the capability to reach Attock,” he said. Attock, now in Pakistan, was briefly conquered by Maratha armies in the 18th century. “Hence I fully believe that by 2050 we will see not one but more than one Maharashtrians in the highest post in the country,” he said. The Maharashtra chief minister was also asked if there was a possibility of “change of guard from Narendra to Devendra”, to which Fadnavis responded smiling, “till this moment, I thought you were my well-wisher. Not anymore.” With inputs from PTI