'Why should IAS, IFS, OBC MPs get reservations?' Mohandas Pai asks Akhilesh Yadav

Mohandas Pai, chairman of Aarin Capital, has questioned whether members of the OBC community who are economically well-off should continue to get reservation benefits.

His comments came after Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav criticised what he called attempts to weaken reservation through terms such as "review", "reform" and "creamy layer".

Responding to Yadav on Sunday, Pai asked: "Should you and your whole extended family clan get reservations too? Or this should be for the poor in the OBC?"

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The former Infosys CFO also questioned why OBC members who hold senior positions should receive reservation benefits.

"Why should IAS, IFS, MP's of the OBC get reservations? What disability do they suffer from. They are powerful, economically well off. What disability do they suffer from. They are powerful, economically well-off. Give this to those left behind, poor amongst the OBC," Pai said.

He accused affluent members of the community of capturing reservation benefits at the expense of others.

"In the name of reservation you and your ilk are perpetrating your privileges and becoming a very privileged oppressor class of your own community since you folks are grabbing all benefits and not allowing others. This is wrong," Pai said.

What Akhilesh Yadav Said

The former UP chief minister had earlier alleged that attempts to introduce "reservation reform" were part of a broader effort to end reservation benefits for the PDA community.

"The conspiracy to end reservations under the guise of 'reservation reform' is yet another deep plot against PDA society," Yadav said in a post on X. He said reservation was the "right of PDA, not the subject of anyone's whim."

Yadav also criticised references to the "creamy layer" and calls to give up reservation benefits. "The BJP and their allies, from time to time, oppose reservations by using vague terms like ‘review’ or ‘reform,’ or by talking about ‘creamy layer’ or advising ‘to give up reservations’—these are nothing but different masks for the ongoing attempts to trample the reservation rights granted to centuries-oppressed and deprived people," he said.

"Reservation was there, reservation is there, reservation will remain!" Yadav added.