Prime Minister's announcement on scrapping job interviews kicks up row

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's announcement, on Sunday, of doing away with the requirement of interviews for lesser non-gazetted central government jobs from January 1,drew accusations of violation of the model code for elections and attempts at putting an end to the reservation policy.

Bihar's anti-BJP grand alliance alleged that Modi's announcement, made at a time when the Assembly polls were underway, not only violated the model code of conduct but would also lead to "effective implementation" of RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat's call for a review of quotas.

"The PM's announcement of doing away with interviews for Group D,C and B non-gazetted posts in central government means a good bye to the reservation policy as recruitment would only be held on merit basis. The PM's statement suggests so. We strongly oppose this and will make respresentation to the EC soon and raise this issue inside and outside Parliament," JD(U) general secretary K C Tyagi, flanked by Congress leader R P N Singh and eminent lawyer K T S Tulsi, told reporters.

"This is the effective implementation of Mohan Bhagwat's demand for a review of the reservation policy and the Prime Minister has to respond to the voters," he said.

On the backfoot over allegations against his government that it was contemplating scrapping quotas for the Schedule Castes, Scheduled Tribes and OBCs, Modi, on the campaign trail in Bihar, accused RJD chief Lalu Prasad and JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar of spreading the "poison" of caste politics.

Clarifying once again about BJP and his government's stand on quotas, Modi said his views on reservation match those of Lalu, Nitish and Congress and there is total unanimity among political parties in Parliament on the issue as nobody is against the existing quota system.

"Today in our country, there is no demand from any corner for doing away with reservation. All sections of the society have accepted this arrangement and now new sections are demanding their inclusion in it. There is also a consensus on the issue among political parties in Parliament.

"I may have a lot of differences with Lalu, Nitish and Congress on other topics but on the issue of reservation, I have no difference with any political party. My views on reservation are same as Lalu, Nitish or Congress," he said.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said both RSS and Bhagwat have clarified on the issue and BJP was never against quotas.

"BJP from the very first day has been in the favour of reservation. If anybody has given the longest statement on Mandal Commission, it is the third party of the grand alliance and that's the Congress party. You see Rajiv Gandhi's speech made in 1991 on Mandal Commission's report and you will understand who favoured and who opposed it," Jaitley said.