Stating that reservation will not guarantee employment as jobs are shrinking, Union minister Nitin Gadkari on Saturday, 5 August, said that there is a "school of thought" which wants policy-makers to consider the poorest of poor in every community.
Gadkari was responding to reporters' questions on the ongoing agitation by the Marathas for reservation and similar demands by other communities in Maharashtra:
Let us assume the reservation is given. But there are no jobs. Because in banks, the jobs have shrunk because of IT. The government recruitment is frozen. Where are the jobs? The problem with the quota is that backwardness is becoming a political interest. Everyone says I am backward. In Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, Brahmins are strong. They dominate politics. (And) They say they are backward.