New Delhi: Hundreds of pro-reservation activists, including students and farmers, from different states held a Mahapanchayat in New Delhi on Monday, giving an 'ultimatum' to the government to implement 27 per cent quota for OBCs in elite educational institutions within 90 days.
In a show of strength, students from several universities, including Allahabad, Delhi, Patna, Jawaharlal Nehru University as well as some medical students from the capital's Maulana Azad Medical College, converged at the Talkatora Indoor Stadium in support of the government's proposal to introduce reservation for OBCs.
The activists were carrying placards with messages like 'Opportunity breeds equality', 'Give space to nurture our talent' and 'remove frustration, promote education'.
"Reservation is our Constitutional right and no government can stop us from getting it," former UP Minister Ashok Yadav, convener of the Mahapanchayat, said.
The government has to implement within three months' time the reservation for OBCs and if it fails to do so, lakhs of people across the country will hit the streets, he added.
Hailing Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for appointing a three-member ministerial committee on the issue, he said, "Knowledge Commission's Sam Pitroda and Congress leader Janardan Dwivedi are trying to scuttle the reservation move" and demanded their expulsion from the government and the party respectively.
"We will expose such leaders who are against reservation," he said.
As many as 125 MPs belong to the OBCs, he pointed out and said, "they can decide who will be the Prime Minister of the country".
Flaying the anti-reservation agitation of the medical students and doctors, he said they were in a minority and the government has to listen to the voice of the OBCs, who have a sizeable population.
"So far we were silent on the issue. Now we won't remain silent anymore. This is just a trailer of what we are capable of doing if the government fails to implement the reservation," Yadav said.
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