Q: It is said that once upon a time you were associated with ‘Youth for Equality' and that you have strong views on caste based reservation.
Kejariwal: I have had no association whatsoever with ‘Youth for Equality'. It's just a rumour. So far as reservation is concerned, we do believe that there are a few sections of society which had been persecuted in the past, they were subjected to untouchability. Therefore, there should be reservation for such people. It has been observed that once a person gets reservation it helps his own family and some of his close families. But we also believe that once a person gets the benefit of reservation then he should not be given reservation again. Similarly, if a person is economically sound then the reservation should not be given to that person. It should be given to some other member of that section. In our country, there are 20 crore schedule caste people and there are only 2 lakh govt jobs per annum where reservation is applicable. We can't bring 20 crore people into mainstream with reservations only. Therefore, if we want to bring this section into mainstream then the only alternative is ‘education'. If we succeed in providing quality education to all of them then we can give them a level playing field and then they themselves will say that they don't want reservations anymore. Till then, reservation should continue.
Q: There have been some allegations regarding your association with Ford Foundation. How would you react to that?
Kejriwal: I had no relation with Ford. Manish Sisodia ‘s NGO 'Kabir' got financial aid for making films, pamphlets and other awareness materials on RTI from 2005-08. But a rumor was spread that Anna's movement got money from Ford Foundation and that was completely wrong. Somebody filed a PIL in High court and the MHA officials raided the home and offices of Manish Sisodia but they could not get anything. Finally MHA and Delhi police has filed a report in Delhi High Court saying that not a single penny from overseas was spent in Anna's movement.
