Ramdas Athawale, a government minister, is calling for the government to set aside a certain number of private sector jobs for people from lower social classes, known as Other Backward Classes (OBCs). He thinks it’s unfair that people from these communities, as well as those from Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs), are struggling to find work in the private sector. He’s worried that things will only get worse if more government-owned companies are sold to private owners.

This is happening at the same time as a controversy in the state of Karnataka, where the government is thinking about reserving a large percentage of private sector jobs for people from the local community, known as Kannadigas. The state’s chief minister, Siddaramaiah, initially said that 100% of these jobs would be reserved for Kannadigas, but later backtracked and said the actual number would be 70% for non-management jobs and 50% for management jobs. A social media post announcing the 100% reservation was quickly deleted.