Reject Patel reservation outrightly: Sharad Yadav

Terming the Patel community's demand for reservation in the OBC category in Gujarat as unjustified, senior JD-U leader Sharad Yadav on Thursday said the government should come forward and reject it outright.

"The ruling party in power has not yet come forward to say that the demand of Patels for reservation is unreasonable, as no political party can afford to initiate debate on the relevance of reservation policy, leave aside revising the policy," Yadav said in a press conference here.

"The government in power cannot win on both sides of the coin, as it should straight away reject the demand instead of creating an acrimonious situation in the country," the Janata Dal-United (JD-U) chief added.

He termed the demand of reservation for Patels as unjustified.

"The agitation by Patel caste is unjustified and wrong as the community has been quite well off. They should not agitate for reservation at all," Yadav said.

Yadav also said that due to huge unemployment, people like Patels demand reservation.

"It is just after a year, Patels launched a rally in the home state of prime minister demanding reservation. This is the result of false promises made by the ruling party. Due to huge unemployment in the country, the people like Patels would find only such a route which is more convenient for them that is to demand reservation," Yadav said.

Yadav also took a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for its failure in fulfilling its poll promises.

"BJP had made 42 big promises in their election manifesto including that of employment to two crore youths every year, of which I think most of them remain unattended so far," he said.

"I am of the view that every political party should avoid making false promises as it may break and destroy our deep roots of democracy, as people of the country have already started losing confidence in the politicians," he added.

"As promised by the government to create two crore jobs annually for the youth, they should immediately find a way or else the country's youth will go out of hand," he said.

Yadav also dubbed the Patel community leader Hardik Patel as "immature".

The statement came in the wake of 22-year-old Hardik Patel staging a huge rally in Ahmedabad, seeking reservations for the Patel community, including the Patidar community, in the Other Backward Classes category.