Will protest ending of OBC quota for senior faculty: Lalu Prasad

Patna, June 7 (IANS) RJD chief Lalu Prasad on Tuesday blamed the "Brahmanical RSS" and its "child" the BJP for a UGC decision to exempt senior teaching posts from the OBC reservations, saying the move will invite a "countrywide protest".

"We will not sit silent. We will launch a countrywide protest to expose BJP-led government's bid to end reservations at the behest of the RSS," Lalu told reporters here.

Earlier, in a series of tweets, Lalu Prasad attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Singh (RSS) over what he alleged to be their "attempt to end reservations".

"The BJP is the child of Brahmanical RSS. We won't allow the anti-OBC, anti-Dalit BJP to take way the rights of the deprived. Let them not be in any misimpression," tweeted Lalu in Hindi.

The University Grants Commission (UGC) last week informed the central universities that their current practice of exempting senior faculty posts from the OBC quota would continue.

While the Scheduled Castes (15 per cent) and Scheduled Tribes (7.5 per cent) quotas will apply to all teaching posts at these universities, the 27 per cent Other Backward Class (OBC) quota will cover the recruitment of assistant professors but not associate professors and professors.

The UGC officials have reportedly said the department of personnel and training had earlier exempted senior faculty posts (associate professors and professors) in technical courses from the OBC quota.

The UGC, they said, had merely extended that exemption to all courses in central universities.

The UGC is a statutory body under the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development and is responsible for maintaining the standards of higher education.